Cover Page
The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/32883 holds various files of this Leiden University
dissertation.
Author: Goudriaan, Elisa Johanna
Title: The cultural importance of Florentine patricians. Cultural exchange, brokerage
networks, and social representation in early modern Florence and Rome (1600-1660)
Issue Date: 2015-04-30
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
4
The shared cultural world of the Medici
princes and the Florentine patricians:
musical performances, European networks,
and cultural academies
Introduction
In the first part of this chapter we see how the cultural worlds of the Medici
princes and the patricians related to each other, as the latter functioned as tutors and chamberlains for the former and in these roles supervised the Medici’s
cultural projects and academies (as vice-patrons). This is illustrated especially
by the rich correspondence found in the Niccolini-archive between Filippo Niccolini, vice-patron of the Sorgenti-academy protected by Prince Giovan Carlo
de’ Medici, and the Roman musicians Marco Marazzoli and Giuseppe Vannucci.
This correspondence demonstrates that the close contact Florentine patricians
had with important artists and musicians led to many cultural innovations. In
addition to this, attention is given to the relation between Don Giovanni de’
Medici and the members of the Alterati-academy, and to the many patricians
who played a role in Leopoldo de’ Medici’s network of cultural agents. Together
the Medici princes and the patricians supported a large cultural world with
many connections to other cities.
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In the second part, we see how the Medici princes were actively involved in
the cultural academies they patronized. The patricians used these cultural
academies as places for critical discussions about literature, art, poetry, theology, and theatre and they experienced their reunions as intellectual diversions
from their official obligations. Moreover, the academies were important places
for sociability between patricians and artists where there was large space for
cultural experiments. Playful accents in literature, poetry, word games, and
theatre alternated with serious discussions and together characterised the life
in the academies in the first half of the seventeenth century. At the same time,
these academies were the starting point for many of the cultural developments
we will discuss in the following chapters, such as art brokerage and ceremonial
events.
Part I
4.1 Giovanni de’ Medici and the Alterati
One member of the Medici-family who shared a lot of interests with Florentine
patricians was Don Giovanni de’ Medici (1567-1621, fig. 1).661 He was an illegitimate son of Grand Duke Cosimo I and Eleonora degli Albizzi and was later
legitimated. From that moment on he was involved in many court events and
had important functions as a military commander in several countries. He was
educated as a man of letters at the court of Grand Duke Francesco I and like the
patricians he undertook diplomatic missions, held memberships in a variety of
academies, collected art, worked as amateur architect, demonstrated an interest
in culture and science generally, and maintained informal contact with artists.
His most important commission as an architect was the Cappella delle pietre
dure in the Medici Chapels.662 Don Giovanni had great interest in theatre and
during his life he patronized the Accademia Comici Confidenti (from 1613
to 1621) and the Accademia degli Incostanti. The Incostanti performed in his
661 On the life and career of Don Giovanni de’ Medici, see Lippmann 2011; Baroncelli (ed. Marina Macchio)
2009; Volpini 2009 and Dooley 2006; 2004.
662 Besides his work in the Medici Chapels, as an architect Giovanni de’ Medici built Forte Belvedere
together with Alessandro Pieroni and furthermore, he made the façade of Santo Stefano in Pisa.
Giovanni’s project for the cappella dei principi (or Cappella delle pietre dure) was chosen by a jury that
consisted of Vasari the Younger, Giovanni Caccini, Alessandro Pieroni, Alessandro Allori, Passignano,
Cigoli, and Santi di Tito. They rejected a project of Bernardo Buontalenti, because it’s light source was
only secondary. (Dooley 2004: 93.)
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
Volpini 2009: 72-77.
Landolfi 1991: 59.
Ibid.: 65.
Weaver/Weaver 1978: 87-143. La Dafne is considered to be the first opera and was performed for the
first time during the Carnival of 1598 at the Palazzo Corsi.
Mazzoni 2000: 885; Van Veen 2008: 2. The Accademia degli Alterati was founded by Vincenzo Acciaiuoli, Antonio degli Albizzi, Giulio del Bene, Alessandro Canigiani, Lorenzo Corbinelli, Tommaso del
Nero and Renato de’ Pazzi.
Van Veen 2008: 3.
Weinberg 1954: 208-209.
Ibid.
Weinberg 1954: 212.
Mazzoni 2000: 885; Weinberg 1954: 212.
Weinberg 1954: 207.
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palace in Via del Parione.663 In the famous court-diary of Cesare Tinghi, there
is information about these performances in Don Giovanni’s palazzo.664 There
were many improvisational plays, like ridiculous comedies, masked comedies
and comedies with the use of dialects.665 In 1611 La Dafne, written by Ottavio
Rinuccini and composed by Jacopo Corsi, was performed in Corsi’s palace.666
At the end of his life Don Giovanni dedicated much of his spare time to
the Accademia degli Alterati. The Alterati academy was founded in 1569 by
seven young patricians, with the aim of discussing poetry, literature, music,
science, theatre and art.667 At the end of the sixteenth century the academy
gathered weekly or fortnightly in the house of Tommaso del Nero and from the
beginning of the seventeenth century in the house of Giovan Battista Strozzi
il Poeta. When Strozzi died in 1634 the academy ceased to exist. 668 In the first
decades of its existence, the discussions of the academy concentrated on literature in general and especially on the relative position of poetry with respect to
the other arts (rhetoric, history, philosophy, and painting).669 And within this
genre of poetry, the members aspired to establish a hierarchy among the poetic
genres themselves (they distinguished the genres comedy, tragedy, lyric, epic,
canzone, and sonnet).670 In the public quarrel about Ariosto and Tasso, which
started in 1582, the Alterati defended Ariosto vigorously.671 Besides discussions
about poetry the other main concern of the academy was to judge the writings
of their members, but also of independent persons who sent their manuscripts
to the academy for criticism.672 In addition to their discussions, or also simultaneously, they had festive banquets, where they played practical jokes and
engaged in mock polemics.673
Don Giovanni de’ Medici had joined the Alterati in 1587 with the pseudonym Il Saldo, but had often been absent because of his military missions for the
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Habsburgs in Flanders and Hungary/Bohemia.674 When he was present however,
the Alterati had felt very honoured and had enjoyed his wonderful qualities. In
1615 he left for Venice, where he would be appointed as commander-in-chief
of the army of the Republic of Venice. After his departure for Venice, his letters
often were read aloud, because of the beautiful language. As Giovan Battista
Strozzi il Poeta wrote him, after his departure it felt as if winter had started
(“Mentre V.S. Illustrissima favoriva con la sua presenza l’Accademia, ella fioriva
e produceva frutti mirabili, doppo la partita e lontananza sua è a lei, come alla
terra avvenuto nel tempo del verno”).675 To keep the memory of his presence
at the Alterati alive, Don Giovanni decided to put on record the activities of
the academy in his Ragionamenti accademici.676 The Ragionamenti consisted of
five parts. In the third part, he wanted to describe the ‘virtuous exercises’ of the
Alterati in the years 1618-19.677 To be as accurate as possible he wrote the patrician Giovan Battista Strozzi il Poeta several letters to ask for membership lists,
including pseudonyms, coats of arms and information about each member’s
literary output. In 1621, shortly before his death, this part of the Ragionamenti
was almost finished.678 The other members of the Alterati read it together in his
absence and were full of praise for his writings.679
Don Giovanni deeply regretted that during his years in Venice, he was unable to discuss his writings and cultural ideas with his fellow academicians:
“Il maggior sollevamento che io habbia doppo qualche fastidio sono i miei
studii, i quali restano bene spesso privi del loro intero gusto non havendo con
chi conferirli”.680 This demonstrates the previous statement that the academies
motivated their members to reflect about each other’s intended publications
in order to criticise their fellow members and stimulate them to publish their
writings. When he died in Venice in 1621, Don Giovanni left behind the manuscript of the Ragionamenti accademici, containing only one volume, which was
674 Volpini 2009: 72-77; Landolfi 1988: 134.
675 This is written in an undated draft of a letter from Giovan Battista Strozzi to Don Giovanni (Biblioteca
Nazionale Magl. Cl. IX. Cod. 124).
676 Volpini 2009: 72-77. Ragionamenti: BNCF Magl. VIII 1406 cc.1-104.
677 Landolfi 1988: 138. BNCF Magl. Cl. VIII, cod. 1406, cc. 1-104 (minuta, parzialmente autografa) and copia
calligrafica Biblioteca Laurenziana: cod. Ashb. 562, cc. 129-225.
678 Landolfi 1988: 139 For the letters written by Don Giovanni de’ Medici to Strozzi, see Biblioteca Nazionale
Magl. Cl. IX. Cod. 124, c. 12-15, 20-23. For the answers of Strozzi, see: ASF Mediceo del Principato 5141
c.4,14,35,43,415. For the list of pseudonyms of members of the Alterati Don Giovanni de’ Medici gets
from Strozzi (BNCF Magl. Cl. IX. Cod. 124, c.1 + 6), see appendix.
679 Landolfi 1988: 140 Letter from Strozzi to Giovanni de’ Medici: 21 July 1621, ASF Mediceo del Principato
5141 c. 43, see appendix.
680 30 July 1616, ASF Carte Alessandri f.2, c. 192.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
177
sent to Florence by his fellow Florentine Niccolò Sacchetti, a patrician who
lived in Venice.681 Some Florentine artists, like Filippo Furini, were close friends
of Giovanni and even visited him on his deathbed in Venice. Furini stayed with
him day and night ‘with large and passionate affection’ (con grandissimo et
sviscerato affetto).682
4.2 Giovan Carlo de’ Medici and Filippo Niccolini
681 Landolfi 1988: 146.
682 Ibid. Landolfi quotes the manuscript source ASF Mediceo del Principato f 3007 c. 273 r.
683 Filippo Niccolini became marquis of Montegiovi in 1625 and exchanged this fief for the one of Ponsacco
and Camugliano in 1637, as explained in the previous chapter. His brother was Francesco Niccolini
(1584-1650), marquis of Campiglia from 1643 and the Florentine ambassador in Rome between 1621
and 1643.
684 Riccardo Spinelli in a presentation about the relation between Filippo Niccolini and Giovan Carlo de’
Medici on 15 December 2010 at the University of Florence during a conference called ‘Giornata di studi
sulla storia del collezionismo fiorentino del Seicento. La corte medicea e i suoi sodali’.
685 Mascalchi 1982: 46, 47.
686 Barocchi/Bertelà 2005: 121.
687 Villani 2009: 61-63; Mascalchi 1982: 63.
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4.2.1 Niccolini as supervisor of Giovan Carlo’s cultural projects
In 1629, Giovan Carlo de’ Medici (see chapter 2, fig. 23) bought the Villa
Mezzomonte from the Panciatichi family, under the supervision of Marquis
Filippo Niccolini, his tutor and from 1630 his chamberlain, whose patronage
we discussed in the previous chapter. 683 Villa Mezzomonte was located in the
countryside near Impruneta, in the Chianti-region. The patrician Niccolini
advanced all the costs for Giovan Carlo.684 He supervised the restoration of the
villa and was in close contact with the painters who decorated it: Francesco
Albani, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Pandolfo Sacchi, and Stefano del Buono.685
The stucco reliefs were designed by Pietro da Cortona, and Salvator Rosa painted
the lunettes.686 In 1644, Giovan Carlo renewed the mezzanino in the Palazzo
Pitti, with frescoes by Chiavistelli and Ciseri, who later worked for Filippo Niccolini in his city palace.687
Prince Giovan Carlo de’ Medici was very enthusiastic about theatre performances and patronized many theatrical academies in Florence, such as the
Instancabili (from 1633) and the Improvvisi, later known as the Percossi (from
1645), which staged their plays at the Casino Mediceo. Further, he patronized
the Concordi (later the Immobili, from 1648), for which he commissioned the
architect Ferdinando Tacca in 1650 to build the Cocomero theatre. A few years
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later, when the Cocomero theatre had become too small for the purposes of the
Immobili, Giovan Carlo commissioned the same architect to build the Pergola
theatre, erected between 1652 and 1656 (figs. 2 and 3).688 From the moment the
Immobili moved to the Pergola, Giovan Carlo started to patronize yet another
academy, the Accademia dei Sorgenti, which began to perform at the Cocomero
theatre in 1654. In the years before his death he also patronized three other
academies: the Adamisti, the Infuocati and the Imperfetti.689
In 1644, as we could read in the account about his entry into Rome, Giovan
Carlo de’ Medici was made a cardinal.690 In his new role as Cardinal Legate, he
sometimes had to travel to Rome for conclaves or other obligations. In 1655,
for example, he was assigned the task of receiving and accompanying Queen
Christina of Sweden in Rome, where she arrived in December after she had
converted to the Catholic faith in Innsbruck in November of that year. On
all the occasions when Giovan Carlo was in Rome or had other obligations
inside or outside Florence, Filippo Niccolini supervised his cultural projects in
the latter city, such as the building of the Pergola theatre. In a letter to his
nephew, Carlo de’ Medici wrote that he visited the construction of the Pergola
theatre together with Niccolini. He sang the praises of the architect Ferdinando
Tacca and the frescoes by Chiavistelli and Ciseri. He wrote favourably about
the lavishly decorated room with much comfort for the women and princes
and said that some of the scenery was more beautiful than he had ever seen in
Lombardy or Mantua (“alcune scene, che ne’ tempi passati qua non l’ho vedute,
né meno in Lombardia, né a Mantova dove se n’è fatta tanta professione”).691
It was an important remark that Carlo thought the theatre was more beautiful
than other theatres, because in the summer of 1635 Giovan Carlo had made a
trip with his uncle Don Lorenzo to see and experience the theatres in Modena,
Bologna, Parma and Venice. After the trip he knew exactly what kind of theatre
he wanted to build in Florence.692
Niccolini stood in for Giovan Carlo many times as patron of the Cocomero theatre and of the Accademia dei Sorgenti. Between 1654 and 1660, the
Sorgenti put on non-commercial plays financed by the Grand Duke, and every
year they performed open-air plays and improvised plays with much space
688
689
690
691
On the Teatro la Pergola and the Accademia dei Sorgenti, see Michelassi 2005: 445-472.
Mamone 2003a: xxx
On Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, see Villani 2009; Barocchi/Bertelà 2007, III; Mamone 2003a.
Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 94. Carlo de’ Medici to Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, 22 August 1655, ASF Mediceo del
Principato 5375 c535, see appendix.
692 Villani 2009: 61-63.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
693
694
695
696
697
698
Sarà 2007: 130.
Garbero Zorzi/Zangheri 2000: 16.
Decroisette 2000: 84.
Weaver/Weaver 1978: 87-143.
Yans 1978: 175.
Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 78. Letter from Carlo to Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, ASF Mediceo del Principato
5375 c539: 14 August 1655, see appendix.
699 Mascalchi 1984: 268-269.
700 Mascalchi 1982: 62. Carlo Rinuccini (1596-1666) was marquis of Baselice and was married with Lucrezia
Riccardi.
701 Villani 2009: 61-63; Mascalchi 1982 sums up the books Giovan Carlo possessed: Opera omnia of Plotinus
and Plato (Venetian edition from 1517), the Colloqui of Erasmus, the Discorsi sul poema eroico of Tasso,
the Vite (Vitae Parallelae) of Plutarch and of Vasari, many Spanish texts, like the complete works of
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for music.693 The improvised plays were primarily performed during Carnival
and the open-air plays in July and August. Niccolini was involved not only
with the Sorgenti, but also with the Immobili. From the moment the Pergola
theatre was finished, the Immobili staged almost all the official plays organised
by the Medici family.694 Apart from the literary quality of the plays, the factors
that made their performances successful were the machines, set designs, the
magnificent spectacle itself, and an ensemble of about ten virtuoso singers,
carefully selected from the whole peninsula.695 On many occasions, Niccolini
acted as one of the “soprintendenti alle musiche” (supervisors of music) of the
Immobili: for example, during the rehearsals and performances of the dramas Il
pazzo per forza and L’Ipermestra (both performed in 1658).696 Among their other
duties, the supervisors had to choose the specific singers and musicians for each
play.697
Niccolini also took care of Giovan Carlo’s art collection and when Giovan
Carlo decided to move a certain number of his paintings from Casino Mediceo
to Villa di Castello, his uncle Carlo wrote him that although some paintings had
disappeared from Casino Mediceo, it was hardly noticeable because Marquis
Niccolini had rearranged the other paintings so well that the missing paintings
did not catch the eye: (“il marchese Niccolini ha fatto così bene accomodare
gli altri che non si conosce che ne manchi nessuno”).698 At the end of his life,
Giovan Carlo possessed 570 paintings: still lifes, landscapes, family portraits,
paintings with literary scenes, and paintings of the Bolognese school.699 Giovan
Carlo died intestate and with many debts, and immediately after his death
there were negotiations about his art-collection between Filippo Niccolini and
Marquis Carlo Rinuccini, another Florentine patrician and then ambassador
in Rome.700 To pay off Giovan Carlo’s debts, Ferdinand II auctioned the whole
collection of paintings, furniture, books, sculpture, and glass in 1663-64.701
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Most likely, Niccolini and Rinuccini discussed some possible buyers before the
official auction took place.
4.2.2 Niccolini’s correspondence with musicians: new baroque influences from Rome 702
In his function of vice-patron of the Sorgenti, Niccolini came in contact with
many musicians and composers in Rome. In the years 1658–59 he received a
great deal of newly written music from the violone player Giuseppe Vannucci,
a hitherto unknown copyist who resided at the court of the Chigi Pope Alexander VII.703 Apart from his dealings with Vannucci, Niccolini corresponded with
the composer Marco Marazzoli about some of the latter’s recently composed
recitatives and ariettas, which he had sent to Niccolini. Together with other
archival sources from the Niccolini archive in Florence, the letters from Vannucci and Marazzoli give some insight into the early dissemination of Roman
baroque music and its reception in Florence. At the same time, analysis of the
correspondence sheds light on the existence of a small private music academy
at the villa of marchese Niccolini, whose musical patronage remains largely
unknown.
The unknown copyist Vannucci sends ariettas by Caproli and Carissimi to Florence
The Niccolini archive in Florence preserves some thirty unpublished letters
from the musicians Vannucci and Marazzoli to Filippo Niccolini, most of them
written by the otherwise little known Vannucci.704 From 1636 to 1639, he
played the violone in the Cappella Musicale of the church of Santa Maria di
Gòngora (Madrid, 1633), the comedies of Ruzzante and of Aristophanes, translations of Cicero and
Aristotle, the Adone of Marino, the Secchia rapita of Tassoni and the Trattato della musica of Doni. These
books tell something about the cross-border interest in cultural developments in seventeenth-century
Florence. Many of the texts from Spain were sent by the patrician Vincenzo Bardi. (ASF Mediceo del
Principato 5329 c.3, 2 aug 1651). (See Barocchi/Bertelà 2007: 105).
702 Section 4.4.2 is based on, and some paragraphs are literally quoted from, the arsticle by Elisa Goudriaan, ‘“Un recitativo per il Signor Antonio con un scherzetto di un Arietta fatta fresca fresca”: Marco
Marazzoli, Giuseppe Vannucci and the exchange of baroque music between Rome and Florence in the
correspondence of marchese Filippo Niccolini’, Recercare. Rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica
antica, XXV: 1-2, 2013 (2014), pp. 39-74.
703 Vannucci wrote a total of 28 letters to Filippo Niccolini, which are preserved in Florence, Archivio
Niccolini di Camugliano [herafter, ANCFi], fondo antico 246, inserto 5/6/7/8. (All of these are volumes
containing letters from various people to Marquis Filippo di Giovanni Niccolini written during the
years 1658–1659). See appendix.
704 From a document in the Niccolini archive in Florence (ANCFi, fondo antico 60, Registro di ordini
per servizio di Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, 1651–1662) to which we refer later it appears that Vannucci
was likely a priest from Barga. His name does not occur in the article about Roman copyists of the
mid-seventeenth-century by Christine Jeanneret (2009) or in the article about Roman copyists in the
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
181
Provenzano in Siena, where he is listed also as a chaplain.705 During the years
1639–1656 his activities are unknown, but he probably continued working as
a violone player in Siena and joined the Chigi family when it moved to Rome
in 1656, after Fabio Chigi became Pope Alexander VII in 1655. Vannucci’s letters show that he was in close contact with the Pope’s nephew and brother,
Agostino and Mario Chigi, respectively.706 He gives inside information about
the Chigi court, and in one of his first letters to Niccolini he reports on the
contacts between Berenice della Ciaia (the wife of Mario Chigi), Maria Virginia
Borghese (the wife of Agostino Chigi), and Queen Christina of Sweden. In the
summer of 1658 Agostino Chigi and Maria Virginia Borghese had just been
married, and Vannucci describes the first visit of the new bride to the Pope,
and, the day after, to Queen Christina:
During the years of Vannucci’s correspondence with Niccolini, the Chigi family
lived in a palazzo at Piazza SS. Apostoli, which they had rented in 1657 from
seventeenth century by Alessio Ruffatti (2007). His handwriting is also not comparable to that of the
anonymous copyists analysed by Jeanneret and Ruffatti.
705 Reardon 1993: 125. The viol (violone in Italian) was a viola-sized, cello-sized or larger than cello-sized
instrument with four to six strings. Vannucci’s salary is given in ACP [Archivio della Collegiata di
Provenzano], H13 #47, 53, 76 and 85. Marco Borgogni (2008: 28) writes that this chapel was inaugurated
in 1627. I am very grateful to Colleen Reardon, who checked all her documents to find out more information about Giuseppe Vannucci for me.
706 In 1656 Mario Chigi was named a general of the Church. Agostino (1634–1705) was appointed captain
of Castel Sant’Angelo, governor of Benevento and Civitavecchia and castellan of Perugia, Ancona and
Ascoli. Maria Virginia Borghese was the daughter of Princess Olimpia Aldobrandini (princess of Rossano) and Paolo Borghese, who died in 1646. Maria Virginia had a dowry of 200,000 scudi and was one
of the richest women in Rome. See Krautheimer 1985: 12; Stumpo 1980: 743-745.
707 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 5, 7 September 1658.
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Le nuove, che ho della nostra corte sono che martedì su le 21 hora la Signora
sposa Don Agostino insieme con la Signora Donna Berenice andò per la
prima volta a baciar il piede a Nostro Signore uscita cognita in una bellissima
Carozza tutta indorata, dal quale si tratenne sino ad un hora di notte,
ritrovandosi anco da Sua Santità il Signor Cardinale Chigi ed il Signor Don
Mario, e Don Agostino. Il giorno seguente poi la suddetta signora sposa andò
sola a visitar la Regina di Svezia, dalla quale poco dimorò, la sera poi a cena
disse, che la Regina le haveva detto, che in Roma vi haveva pochi amici, ma
che quelli erano buoni, e che spesse volte la visitavano.707
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Stefano Colonna.708 Mario and Agostino Chigi lived there with their wives, other
family members, and servants.709 On 18 July 1658 the wedding of Agostino and
Maria Virginia Borghese was celebrated. Two months after the wedding, on 21
September 1658, Vannucci wrote to Niccolini that “Don Agostino” had given
him a book with ariettas containing contributions from several composers, but
mainly Carlo del Violino, the familiar appellation of Carlo Caproli (“Il Signor
Don Agostino mi ha dato un libro d’ariette, già alcune settimane promessomi,
nel quale ce ne sono da 30 di diversi Autori, ma la maggior parte di Carlo
del Violino”).710 It is possible that the book was a present for the wedding of
Agostino and Maria Virginia, or alternatively that these ariettas were performed
during the wedding celebrations.711
Vannucci wrote that he was planning to copy Agostino Chigi’s whole book
for Niccolini and promised to send one or two compositions weekly. Since
he was not sure whether Niccolini already had some of the ariettas, he wrote
out the textual incipits of the songs so that Niccolini could check his collection (see fig. 6 for a photograph of one of Vannucci’s letters). Carlo Caproli
(1614–1668), the main composer represented in the collection, was a leading
composer of cantatas in the mid-seventeenth century, and a talented violinist
and organist.712 Niccolini probably knew Caproli personally, since a notation in
708 Waddy 1990: 290-302. This palazzo had been built in 1548 and was inherited in 1562 by Marcantonio
Colonna, who lived in it until his death in 1597. After him, it was occupied by Cardinal Francisco
Guzmán de Avila, and in 1622/23 it was bought by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. When Ludovisi received
a new post, he sold the palazzo to Pierfrancesco Colonna.
709 Waddy 1990: 301. The combined households numbered 165 persons. Because they had such a large
famiglia, in September 1659 Mario and Agostino bought another residence, the Palazzo AldobrandiniChigi at Piazza Colonna, to which they moved in the spring of 1660. Stumpo (1980) writes that the
old Chigi palazzo at Piazza SS. Apostoli was bought in 1661 by Cardinal Flavio Chigi (Mario’s son), who
began to live there at the beginning of 1662. As a result of his marriage Agostino became prince of
Farnese. Later on, Pope Alexander VII bought for him the fiefs of Campagnano and Ariccia. Alexander’s
aim was that Agostino should be named a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, an event that came to
pass in October 1658, when Agostino received this title from the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I.
710 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 5.
711 The mentioned book could be BAV Chigi Q.IV.11, with the combined coats of arms of Virginia Borghese
and Agostino Chigi on the binding. This document contains music by Caproli, Carissimi, Marazzoli,
and others, but since there is only one piece by Caproli (while Vannucci wrote most of the pieces were
composed by him) the volume copied by Vannucci was probably another one.
712 Caproli began his career as maestro di cappella of San Girolamo degli Schiavoni (1638–42). After that,
he is listed as an instrumentalist, violinist, and chaplain at the Arciconfraternita del SS. Crocefisso from
1644 until 1665. During the same years he is also listed as a musician at the Arciconfraternita di San
Marcello. From 1643, he was second organist at the Collegio Germanico, where Carissimi composed
the music; in 1644 he became an aiutante di camera of Cardinal Camillo Pamphili, the nephew of Pope
Innocent X. From 1652, he served as a violinist at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. In 1653, he went to
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
Paris, where he composed the opera Le nozze di Peleo e di Theti, with a libretto by Francesco Buti. This
opera was performed in 1654, and Louis XIV himself danced in the ballets after each scene of the opera,
which was very well received. In 1655 Caproli returned to Rome and worked in the service of Antonio
Barberini until 1664. In 1655 he also played the violin during the festivities of the entry of Christina of
Sweden in Rome. In 1661 Caproli’s opera Davide prevaricante e poi pentito, with a libretto by Lelio Orsini,
was performed at the court of Vienna, in the Kapelle of Eleonora II. From 1662 Caproli was an aiutante
di camera of Don Virgilio Orsini. Caproli’s cantatas for one or more voices were especially famous for
their lyrical quality. See Riepe 2011: 185,192; Affortunato 2008: 7-17; Speck 2003: 370; Hammond 1999: 59;
Caluori 1980.
ANCFi, fondo antico 63, Entrata e uscita 1652–1661: “A dì 2 Maggio 1659 4 y 4 [4 scudi e 4 soldi] per
sei marzolini donati a Carlino del Violino che passò a Firenze”. Marzolino cheeses are Tuscan sheep
cheeses produced in the early spring when the grass is still fresh.
Unfortunately, the scores of this music have not been preserved in the Niccolini archive — only the
accompanying letters.
Bianconi 1987: 87.
Morelli 2006: 22; Morelli 2005: 308.
Bianconi 1987: 87-88.
Other families that held salons were those of the contestabile Colonna, the Rospigliosi, the Costaguti,
Cardinal Mazarin, Cardinal Savelli, Cardinal de’ Medici, the Princess of Butera, the Princess of Rossano,
and the Duchess of Bracciano. See Carter 1980; Cametti 1911: 644.
Morelli 2006: 22,26.
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the Niccolini archive shows that on 2 May 1659 Niccolini made a present of six
typically Tuscan marzolino cheeses to a certain “Carlino del Violino” who was
passing through Florence on a trip.713
Vannucci kept his promise and sent ariettas copied from the book of Agostino Chigi almost every week.714 For Niccolini, these were certainly avant-garde
works, since Rome was the centre of cantata and chamber aria composition
during the seventeenth century.715 In the years 1640–1660, apart from Caproli, the leading composers of cantatas and arias included Luigi Rossi, Anton
Francesco Tenaglia, Giacomo Carissimi, and Marco Marazzoli.716 The cantatas
were generally written for one or two voices with basso continuo (sometimes
accompanied by one or two violins), and were aimed at a select audience of
connoisseurs.717 Therefore this vocal chamber music could be performed in a
perfect setting at the conversazioni (salons) regularly held in the private palaces
of Roman aristocratic families such as those of the Barberini, Pamphili, Borghese, Chigi, Colonna, and Queen Christina of Sweden.718
In mid-seventeenth-century Rome, most cantata music circulated only in
manuscript form. Compositions could reach musicians and patrons most quickly in this state and remain exclusive.719 Every prominent family sought to have
the latest compositions for its salon, and copyists (or composers themselves)
could arouse the curiosity of potential patrons by offering a rare, handwritten
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copy of a recently completed work. For patrons at other courts, such as Filippo
Niccolini in Florence, this could be a very attractive proposition, since it was
not at all expected that the music heard at such ephemeral performances would
be preserved. Cantatas were generally written for specific occasions where attention centred on the immediate quality of the performance rather than on
the future preservation of the musical score. Very often, the composers retained
the scores in their own autograph copybooks.720 But on many occasions, the
music was professionally copied by copyists and sent, normally in the form of
fascicles containing single works, to interested patrons. For Niccolini, it must
have been especially gratifying to introduce music in Florence that had only
recently been performed at Roman salons. There was no reverse phenomenon
of Florentine cantatas being sent in significant numbers to Rome, and the Roman cantatas were seen as special gifts of cultural significance and indicative of
the close bonds between the patrons who received them and members of the
highest circles of Roman society.721 Thus, in addition to the ariettas from the
book of Agostino Chigi, Vannucci attempted to send Niccolini many more new
compositions that emerged at court in Rome, as we learn from the following
passage, where the musician takes pains to stress that he is employing every free
minute to copy ariettas for Niccolini:
Da un Gentilhuomo del Signor Don Agostino mi fu data una nuova arietta,
la quale è nuova e però, senz’altro avviso, le ne mando, facendole sapere, che
quando sono disoccupato sempre vò copiando delle accennate.722
In March 1659 Vannucci sent one of Caproli’s compositions from the book
of Agostino and expressed succinctly his opinion of it: “ed è a mio giuditio
bella”.723 Vannucci is constantly attentive to Niccolini’s judgment about the
copied ariettas, and he several times expresses his satisfaction that the marquis
liked them - for example, in April 1659, after Niccolini has received the aforementioned composition of Caproli: “Godo poi non poco che l’aria ultimamente
mandatale, sia stata di suo gusto. Le ne mando una del medesimo Autore, che
anco questa credo che sarà di suo genio”.724
720
721
722
723
724
Murata 1990: 274-279.
Morelli 2006: 27.
ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 6, 16 November 1658.
Ibid., inserto 7, 19 March 1659.
Ibid., 11 April 1659.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
725 He gives the incipits on 7 June 1659. (ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 8). An original score of “Par
ch’il core melo dica” is preserved in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica “San Pietro a Majella” in
Naples: “Par, che il core me lo dica/che s’io servo Donna bella”: I-Nc 33.4.18 B, ff. 15r–28v. See Affortunato
2008; Caluori 1980.
726 The document Ms. Borb. 431 (Raccolta di ariette a uno e due voci) in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma
contains an anonymous piece with the title ‘Sentite come fu’.
727 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 8 (21 June 1659).
728 Ibid., 21 June 1659.
729 Ibid., 6 July 1659.
730 Bianconi 1987: 75. He also wrote oratorios for the Arciconfraternita del SS. Crocifisso (in 1650 and 165860). A large part of his oeuvre consisted of cantatas, of which 150 are preserved. One third of these
are written for two or three voices, the rest being works for one soprano and continuo. One of the
characteristics of Carissimi’s cantatas is that he often responds imaginatively to the opportunities for
word-painting offered by individual words, utilizing the virtuosic vocal techniques of his time. See
Jones 2001; Dixon 1986.
731 Jones 2001; Dixon 1986: 54.
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In June 1659 Vannucci finished copying the book and asked Niccolini whether
he wanted to receive some of the other ariettas that he, Vannucci, has already
proposed (by giving their textual incipits) in his previous letters. He transcribed
two incipits of ariettas by Caproli that he was planning to send. One of the
incipits Par che il core me lo dica can be found in the listed works of Caproli and
is a solo cantata with basso continuo.725 The other Sentite come fu cannot be
traced and may well be lost.726
At the end of June 1659 Vannucci announced to Niccolini that he was
about to receive some new songs from someone at court - “essendomene state
promesse alcune”.727 He also promised to send some ariettas for two and three
voices as soon as Niccolini could confirm that he did not yet possess them
(“Le mando hora una di quelle che scrive non havere, la quale mi do a credere,
non le dispiacerà. Intanto se intenderò che non habbia le accennate a due, e
tre voci, sarà servita di quelle ancora”).728 In July 1659, Vannucci expressed his
satisfaction that Niccolini liked the ariettas of Caproli and now began to send
compositions by Carissimi (“Le ne mando hora una a due [voci] del Signor
Carissimi, che credo non sarà inferiore all’altre”).729 It is possible that these
are the four ariettas for more voices of which Vannucci had given the textual
incipits in April, and to which he refers at the end of June.
Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674, fig. 4) was maestro di cappella of the Jesuitrun German College of Rome, the Collegio Germanico-Ungarico, where he
worked during the whole of his career, stretching from 1629 until 1674.730 In
July 1656, after Carissimi became maestro di cappella del concerto of Queen Christina, his interest in secular music increased.731 This coincided with the period
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when Vannucci was sending his ariettas to Florence. Most of the secular music
Carissimi composed during this time was composed for Christina of Sweden or
for aristocratic Roman families.732
On 12 July 1659 Vannucci sent an aria for three voices and expressed a hope
that the compositions he was providing were satisfactory to the signori virtuosi.
It is not clear who are meant precisely by the signori virtuosi - they are probably
members of the Accademia dei Sorgenti or the Immobili, or singers in their
service. Normally, ‘virtuosi’ are professional musicians, and therefore persons
more likely to be employees rather than full members of most academies. Vannucci emphasized again that some of the compositions he was sending were
freshly written:
Le mando un’aria a tre [voci]; se questa incontrarà il suo gusto, e quello di
cotesti signori virtuosi, mi sarà cosa grata. Me ne sono state promesse due o
tre, che son uscite dalla penna adesso, il nome delle quali non mandarò, già
che son sicuro che ella non l’ha.733
Vannucci continued to send compositions until August 1659, after which there
are no more letters from him in the correspondence. It emerges clearly from the
information in his letters that Vannucci was in very close contact with Agostino
Chigi and the gentlemen who surrounded him. He may have been employed
as a household attendant (aiutante di camera) for one of the family members,
which was common for musicians. In addition, he seems to have been a regular
copyist for Filippo Niccolini, and possibly also for Giovan Carlo de’ Medici.
An order in the Niccolini archive shows that from 1656 Vannucci was paid
a monthly salary of three scudi by Giovan Carlo de’ Medici for unspecified
duties.734
What did Niccolini do with all these compositions? What was their function,
and what can they tell about the existence of a private Niccolini music academy
732 Jones 2001. The subject of Carissimi’s cantatas is mainly unrequited love. To see how Vannucci’s letters
can probably date, as well as add, some hitherto unknown compositions of Carissimi, see Goudriaan
2014: 49-51.
733 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 8, 12 July 1659.
734 ANCFi, fondo antico 60, Registro di ordini per servizio di Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, 1651–1662: Prete Giuseppe Vannucci da Barga: Molto Illustre Signore Paolo Vettori. Havendo il Serenissimo Cardinale Principe
Giovan Carlo di Toscana fatto gratia al Reverendo Giuseppe Vannucci da Barga di consegnargli tre scudi
mese di provvisione sino che non venga provvisto come per resto da dì primo Luglio 1656 che in filza prima
no. 105 gliele non andarà VS pagando o mensualmente fino a nuovo ordine. Di Casa 11 Agosto 1656.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
187
in Florence? The correspondence between the composer Marco Marazzoli and
marchese Niccolini may help us to answer these questions.
735 In 1626 Marazzoli came to Rome from Parma. From 1629 he worked for Antonio Barberini. From 1634 he
held a post at Santa Maria Maggiore, where Antonio Barberini was archpriest. In the Papal Chapel he
had a post as a tenor and in the Barberini household he was listed as a bussolante. For more information on Marazzoli, see Morelli 2007: 466-471; Witzenmann 2001; Hammond 1994: 85; Witzenmann 1969:
36–86.
736 Chi soffre speri was performed during Carnival 1637 in honour of the visit of landgrave Frederick of
Hesse-Eschwege. The opera was reprised in 1639 for the inauguration of the Barberini theatre in the
Palazzo Barberini at Quattro Fontane, and for this occasion some new intermedi were included. The
opera, written by Giulio Rospigliosi (the future Pope Clement IX), was based on a novella of Boccaccio
and contained the intermedio La fiera di Farfa. Its title referred to the stage play La fiera of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, a copy of which Buonarroti had sent to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in
the same year (1639). In La fiera di Farfa Marazzoli introduced street cries, folksongs, and dances. See
Morelli 2007: 466-471; Witzenmann 2001; Hammond: 1999: 58; Hammond 1994: 236.
737 Morelli 2007: 466-71; Witzenmann 2001. 1641 Marazzoli was invited by the Marquis Cornelio Bentivoglio
in Ferrara to compose the music for the opera L’amore trionfante dello Sdegno (Gli amori di Armida). In
1642, he wrote the opera Le pretensioni del Tebro e del Po in honour of Taddeo Barberini, who passed
through Ferrara with his army.
738 Hammond 1994: 85.
739 Morelli 2007: 466-71; Hammond (1994: 53) writes that the Barberini had become reconciled with the
Pamphili, thanks to a marriage between Olimpia Giustiniani (the grand niece of Pope Innocent X Pamphili) and Maffeo di Taddeo Barberini (1631–1685). Maffeo’s elder brother, Carlo Barberini (1630–1706),
commissioned Marazzoli and Antonio Maria Abbatini to compose the music for the opera Dal male il
bene, on a libretto by Giacomo Rospigliosi. This opera, performed during Carnival in 1654, marked the
rehabilitation of the Barberini in Rome.
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Marco Marazzoli and his recitatives for Antonio Rivani
At the beginning of his career the singer, composer, and virtuoso harpist Marco
Marazzoli (1602–1662, fig. 5) from Parma worked as a musician for Cardinal
Antonio Barberini the Younger.735 In 1637, together with Virgilio Mazzocchi, he
composed the music for the opera Chi soffre speri. When this opera was revived
in 1639 for the inauguration of the Barberini theatre, Marazzoli composed
the famous intermedio La fiera di Farfa, with stage effects by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini.736 After the death of Pope Urban VIII (in 1644) the Barberini family
was forced into exile in France, and during that period Marazzoli travelled to
Venice, Ferrara, and Paris, writing operas and cantatas for those courts.737 From
1645 onwards he remained in Rome and, like Carissimi, composed several
oratorios for the Arciconfraternita di SS. Crocefisso.738 In the years 1653–54,
immediately before his former patron Antonio Barberini returned to Rome,
Marazzoli worked for the Ferrarese Cardinal Carlo Pio di Savoia.739 Because the
Barberini, recently reconciled with Pope Innocent X, were still one of the rich-
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est families in Rome, Innocent X’s successor, the Chigi Pope Alexander VII,
had given them the opportunity to organize the official festivities at the end of
1655 for Queen Christina’s entry into Rome. Marazzoli composed the music for
several operas that the Barberini offered to Queen Christina on her arrival and
during the months that followed.740
During the years when Marazzoli was corresponding with Niccolini he held
the title of cameriere extra muros of Pope Alexander VII, for whom he worked
from 1656 to 1660.741 He wrote cantatas for several private occasions of the
Chigi family, both in Rome and at their residence in Castel Gandolfo.742 He also
wrote cantatas for the Accademia degli Sfaccendati, which had been founded
by the Pope while still only a cardinal.743 One of the prime characteristics of
Marazzoli’s cantatas is his gift for expressing grief and lamentation.744 In 1656–
57, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in Rome, an event that interrupted
musical activities until about 1660.745 This may explain the fact that Marazzoli
sent works also to Florence and even visited that city during the same period.
740 In the months following Christina’s arrival, Jesuit Colleges, academies, and prominent families
competed with each other for her favour. Such festivities were organized in particular by Cardinal
Francesco Barberini (1597–1679). In December 1655, the queen made her entrance into Rome through
the Porta del Popolo, which had been modernized for that very occasion by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. On
31 January 1656, the Barberini offered her the oratorio Il trionfo della Pietà ossia La vita humana, with a
libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi and music by Marco Marazzoli. Il trionfo della Pietà was repeated on 3 and
6 February, the queen being present on all three occasions. After the oratorio, the Barberini offered her
two further stage works from the pen of Giacomo Rospigliosi: Le armi e gli amori (24 February) and Dal
male il bene (repeated from 1654). Pope Alexander VII offered her a dramma in musica. On 25 February
the Collegio Germanico performed for her Il sagrificio d’Isacco, an oratorio by Carissimi. The Accademia
dei Letterati treated her to an intermedio da ballo on 11 February. The ambassador of France, Ugo de
Lionne, offered her a comedy, Pierre Corneille’s Héraclius. In February, the Pamphili invited her to
their villa and offered her a play written by Giovanni Lotti, with music by Antonio Francesco Tenaglia;
further, they honoured her with the oratorio Daniele perseguitato, with a text by the Prince of Gallicano, Pompeo Colonna, and music by Carissimi. This composition was a series of short arias linked
by recitatives rather than a genuine opera, and many virtuoso singers (most of them in the service of
the papal chapel) participated. From that time onwards, Marazzoli became a virtuoso da camera of the
queen, while retaining his function of cameriere extra muros at the court of Pope Alexander VII. See
Morelli 2007: 466-71; Speck 2003: 324, 370; Witzenmann 2001; Hammond 1994: 53; Witzenmann 1969: 52;
Cametti 1911: 641, 643.
741 Morelli 2007: 466-471; Witzenmann 1969: 54.
742 Morelli 2007: 466-471.
743 Witzenmann 1969: 54.
744 Witzenmann 2001.
745 Ibid.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
189
Marazzoli sent several compositions to Niccolini in 1658.746 The difference between these and those sent by Vannucci is that Marazzoli had composed them
especially for the Sorgenti or the Immobili academy in Florence, although it is
not clear whether this arose from an actual commission or was simply a gift.
Marazzoli always had in mind which singer was to take which part. With the
authority of a composer, he also conveyed his opinion regarding the character
of certain songs or gave Niccolini advice on how to approach them. On one occasion in September, for example, Marazzoli urged the singer Antonio to repeat
a certain recitative several times, because each time he will discover more of its
character:747
Marazzoli includes the scores of the recitatives in the letters, but with regard to
the cantatas for two or more voices, which he notates separately on carta grossa,
he repeatedly advises Niccolini that they will be sent separately with the procaccio.750 “Il Signor Antonio” is the famous singer Antonio Rivani (1629–1686), and
Lucia was his sister-in-law. Rivani (fig. 7) was a soprano castrato from Pistoia
who worked in Florence from 1644 to 1663 in the service of Giovan Carlo de’
Medici.751 During the same years — always with special permission from Giovan
746 Three letters of Marazzoli to Niccolini are preserved in ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 5/6. See appendix.
747 The term recitative in the 1650s indicated a cantata that was divided in sections of aria and recitative.
748 ”Le mie bagatelle” in this instance means “my humble compositions”.
749 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 5, 14 September 1658. In BAV Chigi Q.IV.69 there is a cantata with the
title ‘Le tre sirene’ with the incipit “De le piagge sicane solcava i golfi il navigante” on a text by Baldini.
750 Unfortunately, the scores themselves have not been preserved in the Niccolini archive.
751 Antonio Rivani was trained by maestro Pompeo Manzini in the Cappella Musicale of the Duomo of Pistoia. From 1644 he served Giovan Carlo de’ Medici as an unpaid musico da camera. In 1646, he received
10 scudi every month, and in 1652 his salary was raised to 16 scudi. Between 1656 and 1661, he was a
member of the Accademia dei Sorgenti. During the period 1657–63, he performed in several operas
and theatrical entertainments at the Medici court, mostly those of the Accademia degli Immobili at
the Pergola theatre. In 1657, he took the role of Tancia in Il potestà di Colognole, the dramma civile
rusticale that inaugurated the Teatro la Pergola (text by Giovanni Andrea Moniglia; music by Jacopo
chapter 4
Io riverisco la Signora Lucia, assieme col Signor Antonio e li ringrazio al
maggior segno dei favori che fanno alle mie bagatelle.748 Prego il Signor
Antonio che favorischi più d’una volta il suddetto recitativo perché fosse lui
che canta così affettuoso, lo trovarà meglio la seconda volta della prima e la
terza della seconda. La cantata poi delle Sirene V.S. Illustrissima vi sentirà delle
diversità, ma vi vuole concerto et unione se no non compariscono mai quel
che sono, parlo però con quel rispetto che si deve ad ogni sorte di virtuosi.749
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Carlo, who was proud to lend his virtuoso singer to other courts — Rivani also
travelled to other cities, including Bologna, Ferrara, Genoa, Venice, and Paris,
to perform in operas and salons.752 During Carnival of 1658, the year when
Marazzoli sent his compositions to Niccolini, Rivani sang the role of Ligurino
in the opera Il pazzo per forza (mentioned above) of Giovanni Andrea Moniglia
and Jacopo Melani, for which Filippo Niccolini acted as one of the four soprintendenti alle musiche. In October 1658, Rivani went to Venice; subsequently, he
journeyed throughout Europe to visit the most important courts in Germany
and Austria.753 During his tour of Europe, Rivani kept Niccolini regularly informed about his experiences. This emerges from the drafts of Niccolini’s letters
to Rivani in the Niccolini archive, from which it is clear that Rivani received
advice from Niccolini when planning to buy a villa in Tuscany.754
Just before Rivani left for Venice, Marazzoli had composed a new arietta
with Rivani as the singer in mind. On 25 September, Marazzoli sent this and
another composition to Niccolini and stressed that they had just been written
(“fatta fresca fresca”). Once more, he offered advice about how they were to be
sung and tried to please all the singers of the academy by giving them parts to
Melani; scenery by Jacopo Chiavistelli). After 1660, Rivani travelled to sing in Livorno, Genoa, Marseille
and Paris. Then he returned to Florence to sing the role of Ilo in Ercole in Tebe, performed in 1661 during
the wedding festivities of Cosimo III. Following that, Rivani was asked to sing in Paris, London, Brussels
and Turin and for Christina of Sweden in Rome, at a monthly salary now of 40 scudi (from Christina of
Sweden). At the end of his career he worked for the Gonzaga family (in 1679) and for Cardinal Leopoldo
de’ Medici. See Grundy-Fanelli (rev. Sarà) 2001; Garbero Zorzi/Zangheri 2000: 19; Grundy-Fanelli 1999:
103.
752 From 1651 to 1654, he worked in Bologna, Ferrara, and Genoa, singing in operas and salons. In the
spring of 1655 and 1656 he was in Rome to sing an oratorio by Domenico Anglesi commissioned by
Giovan Carlo de’ Medici for the church of San Marcello. In the summer of 1657, he travelled to Venice to
sing an opera musicale put on by the Grimani family. See Garbero Zorzi/Zangheri 2000: 19.
753 In Venice, he worked for the Grimani family again. In mid-October 1658 he stayed at Innsbruck, moving
a few days later to Vienna, and in December 1658 to Hanover. At the end of January 1659, he went to
Heidelberg, and in April to Frankfurt (meanwhile, he sojourned at Brunswick, as one learns from letters
exchanged between Niccolini and Rivani). In May 1659, he travelled to Munich and Salzburg (his host
in the second city was Archbishop Guidobald von Thun). At the end of May 1659 Rivani returned to
Innsbruck, revisiting Vienna in June. He sang for the Emperor at private functions. During July–September 1659 he was in Venice again; after that, he sought to go to Paris, but in 1660 he was recalled to
Florence to sing the role of Leandro in La serva nobile. See Grundy-Fanelli (rev. Sarà) 2001.
754 In a letter of 11 October 1658 from Niccolini to Rivani in Innsbruck, he concludes by saying that he is
looking forward to Rivani’s letters from other cities “Con che, aggradendo a V.S. la puntualità in darmi
nuova di sè, l’attendo anche dagli altri luoghi ove ella sia per capitare. Con che le bacio.” ANCFi, fondo
antico 246, inserto 11, Minute Filippo Niccolini 1658–1659. This volume contains letters from Filippo
Niccolini to Antonio Rivani sent on 29 March 1659 (to Brunswick) and 10 May 1659 (to Frankfurt), in
addition to the above-cited letter.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
191
sing. He seems to have been especially fond of writing pieces for the talented
Rivani and trusted in his skill at singing the sometimes difficult ariettas:
Vi è un’arietta a 2 soprani acciò la signora Lucia mi continui le sue gratie, e
perché non vorrei che nell’Accademia qualche Basso si lamentasse, che io non
mando ancora delle compositioni con la parte grave, ne riceverà una a 3, et
un recitativo poi per il Signore Antonio con un scherzetto di un’arietta fatta
fresca fresca copiata nei medesimi fogli. Il recitativo ancor che vada cantato
con un affetto straordinario. L’arietta però bisogna portarla un poco stretta se
no riuscirebbe fredda assai. L’arietta poi nell’ultimo ‘Difendetemi mi dico’ mi
rimetto alla bizzarria del Signor Antonio.755
755 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 5, 25 September 1658.
756 When Marazzoli wrote his letter on 9 November 1658, Rivani was somewhere on his way from Vienna
to Hanover. ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 6, see appendix.
757 Witzenmann 2001; Witzenmann 1969: 53. The cantata volumes in the Vatican library are apportioned as
follows: Smaller cantatas, arias and ariettas: Q. VI 80 and 81; Q. VIII 177 and 180; Q. V 68. Larger cantatas
and cantatas for more voices: Q. VIII. 178–179 and 181; Q. V 69. The cantata volumes contain solo ariettas
and cantatas for two or three voices. Composition drafts and fair copies are intermixed.
758 Speck 2003: 367.
759 Morelli 2007: 466-471. The cantatas written for the Chigi family at Castel Gandolfo were: Il lago, also
called Il riposo; Le giustificazioni di Primavera; Lo sdegno della Primavera. Flora e Zeffiro; La chiamata
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From November 1658 onwards, Marazzoli continued to send the marquis
compositions, but he deeply regretted that Rivani was unable to perform
them because of his travels. He wrote that an exquisite ingredient was missing – “manca un ingrediente molto esquisito” - but that he nevertheless felt
honoured that his compositions were being performed by the skilled virtuosi
in Florence (“honorata da una corona di virtuosi così qualificati, come sono
cotesti di cotesta città”).756
It is not known which cantatas Marazzoli sent to Niccolini for, unlike Vannucci, he provides no incipits. Many autograph music manuscripts by Marazzoli are preserved in the Chigi library at the Vatican. In all, 380 cantatas by
Marazzoli are known; but we do not know which ones he sent to Florence,
since the volumes containing his cantatas are without exception undated.757
What we do know, however, is that each year, in collaboration with the poet
Sebastiano Baldini (1615–1685), Marazzoli wrote a cantata for Alexander VII
during his stay at Castel Gandolfo.758 These were often cantatas for three to
six voices,759 whereas, in general, relatively few cantatas by Marazzoli required
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two or more voices.760 The works he sent to Florence are likewise of this kind,
so they were possibly copies of works commissioned by the Chigi family for
private functions; otherwise, they could have been the product of distinct and
original commissions from Niccolini or Giovan Carlo de’ Medici. Marazzoli set
to music many cantata texts by Baldini, as did Caproli, Carissimi, and Rossi.761
Baldini specialized in satirical and burlesque poems and was one of Marazzoli’s
close friends.762
To better understand the correspondence between Marazzoli and Niccolini,
it is important to know that Sebastiano Baldini and Marco Marazzoli travelled
together to Florence in June 1658 to be present at the opening performance of
the Cavalli opera L’Ipermestra, performed in honour of the birth of the Spanish
Prince Felipe Próspero, the son of Philip IV and Maria Anna of Austria. Baldini
wrote to Agostino Chigi about this visit. In a letter of 15 June 1658 to Agostino
Chigi, he mentions L’Ipermestra and writes that during their stay in Florence
parts of Lo sposalizio were performed; this was a piece by Baldini, with music
by Marazzoli, written five years earlier (in 1653) for the wedding of Anna Colonna and Paolo Spinola. Perhaps Marazzoli had to supervise the performance
of this work when it was, apparently, repeated in Florence.763 Since Niccolini
was soprintendente alle musiche for Ipermestra, he certainly made the personal
acquaintance of Marazzoli on that occasion. This may explain why their correspondence began in September 1658, probably following an agreement made
during Marazzoli’s visit.
In one of Baldini’s five letters to Agostino Chigi concerning his stay in Florence, he mentions a visit he made together with Marazzoli to the private palazzo
of Marquis Niccolini.764 He relates that, apart from being received personally by
the Grand Duke, they visited several music academies at the houses of illustri-
760
761
762
763
764
de’ pastori di Castel Gandolfo fatta all’autunno; Il trionfo della Pace, Giustizia e Clemenza riportata da
Marte, Bellona e Sdegno; L’arrivo di Primavera.
Carter 1980.
Speck 2003: 364.
Ibid.: 363. Baldini served as secretary to Cardinal Francesco Rapaccioli in 1656, and later as secretary of
Antonio Barberini. He enjoyed the patronage of Agostino Chigi. He was a member of the Accademia
degli Umoristi and also of the Accademia dei Disinvolti at Pesaro.
Cardinale 2000: 38; Morelli (2007: 466-71) writes that Marazzoli composed this recitative, Lo sposalizio,
to words by Baldini in 1653, so a performance in Florence would have been a repeat. Fragment of the
letter from Baldini to Don Agostino: “Le ’celebri virtuose’ Angela e Virginia Caprini cantarono i brani
facenti parte de Lo sposalizio, gruppo di sei recitativi composti in occasione del matrimonio di Anna
Colonna e Paolo Spinola duca di Sesto, musicati da L. Rossi, G. Carissimi, M. Marazzoli, M. Savioni, C.
Caproli e F. Boccalini.” Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Chig. R.III.69, f. 922.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Chig. R. III. 69, ff. 912–935v. Baldini also visited Siena, Lucca and Livorno.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
193
ous families. He stresses in particular the one held at the palazzo of Marchese
Niccolini, where Marazzoli accompanied Antonio Rivani’s sister-in-law Lucia
Rivani at the harpsichord.765 After the pair’s stay in Florence, Giovan Carlo de’
Medici commissioned Marazzoli to compose the music for two serenatas written by Baldini (I felici e gli infelici and La lite tra i sei amanti e Momo giudice),
the first of which was performed in Rome for the Contestabilessa Maria Mancini Colonna and was repeated in honour of the ambassador of Spain.766 Thus
during the years when Marazzoli and Niccolini corresponded and exchanged
music, Marazzoli was working concurrently for Giovan Carlo de’ Medici.
765 Morelli 2007: 466-71; Cardinale 2000: 38.
766 Morelli 2007: 466-71.
767 L’Ipermestra also contained many duets and terzets. See Yans 1978: 132. Weaver/Weaver (1978: 87-143)
give information about the opere musicali performed in 1658 and 1659.
768 ANCFi, fondo antico 63, Entrata e uscita 1652–1661: “A dì 17 detto [maggio 1658] scudi uno e una per far
legare due libri di Ariette venute da Roma”.
chapter 4
A private music academy at the palazzo and villa of Marchese Niccolini?
It is not known for what precise purpose or purposes Marazzoli and Vannucci
sent music to Niccolini. The fact that Marazzoli mentions the singer Antonio
Rivani and other “virtuosi” in general may mean that he sent pieces intended
officially for the Immobili or the Sorgenti: perhaps not for their full-scale operas, but rather works for smaller, more intimate performances.767 The songs
sent by Vannucci may have had a similar destination. Another possibility is
that Filippo Niccolini received the songs for private salons (conversazioni) held
in his villa, or even for a private academy of music. The fact that, according
to Baldini, Marazzoli and Lucia Rivani performed in his palazzo seems to support this argument. Moreover, in the Niccolini archive we find a payment note
showing that Niccolini ordered the binding of two volumes of music containing several individual ariettas.768 Although this payment comes from a slightly
earlier date than the Vannucci letters, we can assume that Niccolini did the
same with the pieces he received from him. It is even possible that Vannucci
sent him music in the preceding months, and that the letters recording the fact
have simply been lost.
Further payments made by Marquis Niccolini suggest that he held meetings
of a private music academy in his villa. Besides the payment for binding the ariettas, several books containing music such as sonatas for the guitar are described
in the ”Inventario della Libreria”, the inventory of the Niccolini library, dating
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from when it was sold in 1824.769 Moreover the Niccolini archive preserves many
notes of payments, made by the Marquis between 1658­ and 1660, to a violin
maker and to a certain maestro Stefano, an instrumentalist and harpsichord
technician, who were instructed to maintain the musical instruments in his
villa and ensure that they were in tune with one another.770 In these payments
mention is made of keyboard instruments, violins, lutes, theorbos, an organ,
and small guitars.771 A certain Pompeo Teri in Rome was paid by Niccolini for
many lute strings.772 On one occasion, it is noted that the instruments have to
be prepared for the “giorno dell’accademia”, so it is possible that there was at
least one special performance every year. In September 1658, Niccolini paid for
the copying of canzonettas for the use of the “Accademia”. This may have been
a payment to Vannucci, but more likely it represents a payment to a Florentine
copyist.773 At the end of August 1659, Niccolini made a present of ten scudi (the
equivalent of the monthly income of an average musician at the Medici court)
to a Florentine theorbo player who, according to the note, often came to play at
Niccolini’s private palazzo.774 These payments, together with the compositions
sent by Vannucci and Marazzoli, give some idea of the kind of salons held by
Niccolini at his palazzo and villa.
769 ANCFi, Registri moderni, Catalogo e stima della libreria (primo quarto del xix secolo).
770 ANCFi, fondo antico 63, Entrata e uscita 1652–1661:
A dì 13 detto [maggio 1658] a Maestro Stefano scudi uno e una [1 scudo e 1 soldo] per accordare gli
strumenti che sono in Villa. (Maestro Stefano was also called Il Topo, see below).
A dì 22 detto [agosto 1658] a maestro Stefano scudi uno e 5 per accordatura a due accademici di tutti li
strumenti di tasti
A dì 14 detto [settembre 1658] scudi uno lire tre al liutaio sono per più assettature di liuti, tiorbe e
chitarrini per li Accademici.
A dì 16 detto [settembre 1658] lire sei a Maestro Stefano Instrumentaio sono per più assettature di
instrumenti per il giorno dell’Accademia
A dì 28 detto [agosto 1659] scudi uno lire cinque, a M.o Stefano Cimbalaio per più accordature di
instrumenti
A dì 16 detto [settembre 1659] scudi dua e una per assettatura di più instrumenti
A dì 14 detto [ottobre 1659] scudi uno al liutaio per assettature di violoni
A dì 29 detto [ottobre 1659] scudi dua a un organista forestiero che ha accomodato l’organo
A dì 29 detto [ottobre 1659] scudi quattro prestati a Maestro Stefano detto Topo Instrumentaio.
771 On 6 September 1658 Niccolini pays for transporting some instruments from his Florentine palazzo to
his villa. ANCFi, fondo antico 63, Entrata e uscita 1652–1661: “A dì 6 detto [settembre 1658] scudo uno
lire una per più portature di instrumenti da Firenze alla Villa Nuova et altre mancie”.
772 Ibid.: “A dì 8 detto [febbraio 1660] scudi dieci rimessi a Roma a Pompeo Teri che mi ha mandato per
detta somma tante corde di liuto”.
773 Ibid.: “A dì 3 detto [settembre 1658] scudi uno per fare copiare più canzonette in musica per l’Accademia”.
774 Ibid.: “A dì 29 detto [agosto 1659] scudi dieci per donativo al Fiorentino che sona la tiorba, quale è
venuto molte volte a sonare in Casa”.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
4.2.3 Niccolini’s contacts to clients of Queen Christina of Sweden
An important cultural figure that appears in the letters of Niccolini is Pio Enea
II degli Obizzi, a librettist and promoter of the genre of melodrama who in 1652
built a theatre at Padua, known today as the Cinema Teatro Concordi. In the
Niccolini archive I found a letter, not from Degli Obizzi himself, but from the
musician Alessandro Cecconi, who was in service of Christina of Sweden (fig.
8). In December 1651 Cecconi, who seems to have a real pleasure in expressing
himself quite explicitly, wrote Niccolini that he had travelled all the way from
Vienna and on his way he had to travel on the road that leads from Mestre to
775 Murata 1990: 279.
776 Ibid.; Owens 1990: 327.
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The analysis of the correspondence between Marchese Niccolini and the musicians Vannucci and Marazzoli has shown clearly that, apart from his important
commissions to artists, Niccolini also maintained close contact with musicians,
keeping Florence abreast of the latest musical developments. Whether for his
private music academy or for the more “official” academies of the Sorgenti
and the Immobili, he acquired many compositions from Rome, an important
centre of the cantata and chamber aria in the seventeenth century. Niccolini
maintained direct or indirect relations with certain famous composers and
musicians of the time, such as Rivani, Carissimi, Caproli, and Marazzoli. Some
of the musicians and composers from whom he received cantatas, among them
Marazzoli and Caproli, had experience working at important foreign courts
such as those of Venice and Paris. Niccolini was not content merely to receive
the compositions passively: he was genuinely able to discuss them at a more
detailed musical level, as the letters of Marazzoli prove. Thanks to his contacts
with these Roman musicians, Niccolini gained the means of presenting at home
in Florence secular music that originated from the salons of Roman aristocratic
families and the Chigi court.
The dissemination of anthologies and loose fascicles such as the ones Vannucci copied tells us what kind of Roman music, and which composers, were
considered most valuable at other courts, and who was interested in receiving
(and probably collecting) this music.775 By analysing the activities of copyists,
we can gain a better insight into the reputation of musicians and composers,
since the discovery of this kind of correspondence gives us a lively image of
ephemeral performances and of the repertory of private and official musical
academies.776
195
196
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Bologna via Padua, which was a real thrill for him. He wrote that every time
he tried to recall that road in his memory his flesh crept and his hair stood on
end (“giuro a V.S. Illustrissima che ogni volta che fisso il pensiero a quella mi si
raccapricciano le carni e mi si dirizzano i capelli”).777 At the end of this journey,
three miles from Ferrara, he encountered Degli Obizzi, whom he did not yet
know. Degli Obizzi offered Cecconi and his horses a ride in his boat to Ferrara,
only because Cecconi declared himself a client of Niccolini.
During their passage to Ferrara, Degli Obizzi explained to Cecconi that he
had been commissioned by the Duke of Mantua to organise some jousts and
tournaments, and that he was on his way to Ferrara to search for decorations
and for men and horses that could participate. Cecconi relayed that Degli Obizzi was not that satisfied with the Duke of Mantua, because he paid too much
attention to playing and not to politics. Cecconi, in his turn, tells Degli Obizzi
about his fervent admiration for his patroness Queen Christina of Sweden and
thought he succeeded in convincing Degli Obizzi of her exquisite qualities,
because Degli Obizzi planned to send her some of his poems:
Non mancai di predicarli le reali qualità e le uniche Prerogative della Regina
mia Signora con tale ardire e tale ardore, che alla fine si chiamò vinto e
convertito, e per segno del suo devoto affetto mi ha promesso fare legare
quanto prima una quantità di sue poesie, et inviarle a Sua Maestà.778
From this letter results that Niccolini was in contact as a patron with clients of
Queen Christina of Sweden and also with famous theatre figures like Degli Obizzi who was in service of other courts, like Mantua, Venice, Padua and Ferrara.
Thanks to letters like this, Niccolini was able to get much inside information
about these Italian courts.
4.3 Leopoldo de’ Medici (1617-1675) and his cultural contact with Florentine
patricians
il principe [Leopoldo] sta fino a gola nei libri, e non tra i romanzi o i poeti,
ma tra’ concilii, tra i Padri e tra le storie, ed espressamente tra l’antichità
romane; e si confina le belle quattro ore del giorno, solo come un cane, in una
777 ANCFi, fondo antico 246, inserto 4.
778 Ibid. Cecconi was Queen Christina’s favourite and died in 1658 in Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome, the
palace where Queen Christina was living at the time.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
197
libreria; e come i ragazzi il pane, ha sempre per suo consumo un libro in tasca,
per leggerlo in tutti i tempi rubati’ (Lorenzo Magalotti to Ottavio Falconieri,
January 1665).779
779
780
781
782
783
Cited in Cole 2011: 351, who quotes Alessandri 46-53, 1999-2000, tesi di laurea.
Mirto 2009: 106-112.
Meloni Trkulja 1975: 28.
Mamone 2003a: xxviii.
Alessandri 2000: 52. Members were Leopoldo, Vincenzo Viviani, Giovanni Alfonso Borrelli, Antonio
Oliva, Lorenzo Magalotti, Francesco Redi, Carlo Dati, Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Carlo Rinaldini, and
Paolo and Candido del Buono.
784 A Mirto 2009: 106-112.
785 On Lorenzo Guicciardini see chapter 3, The Guicciardini palace and the collection of art.
786 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 141 ASF Mediceo del Principato 5438 c368. Guercino advises about the costs: 17
May 1645: ASF Mediceo del Principato 5438 c19.
chapter 4
This beautiful sketch of Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici in his library was written
by his patrician friend Lorenzo Magalotti. Leopoldo (fig. 9) was very generous
with his books and did not mind when people borrowed his books and did not
return them,780 yet at the end of his life he possessed 14,000 manuscripts and
200,000 books.781 Thanks to the Arcangelo Raffaello confraternity, which he
joined in his youth, Leopoldo met many persons from different social levels.782
These kinds of contacts between young adults contributed to the strong and
elaborate cultural networks between Medici, patricians and artists in Florence.
Like his brother Giovan Carlo, Leopoldo joined and patronized many
cultural academies, including the scientific academy Accademia del Cimento
(1657 to 1667),783 and the Crusca academy. Apart from patronizing it, he was
also a member of the Crusca academy under the assumed names Assonnato
(1641), Adorno (from 1643) and Candido (1651-52). He wrote entries on
artistic subjects for the Vocabolario della Crusca. Apart from the Crusca and
the Cimento academies, Leopoldo also patronized the academies Adamisti,
Infuocati, Imperfetti, and Affinati, some of them after the death of his brother
Giovan Carlo.784 In 1638 he (re-)founded in Florence the Accademia Platonica
of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Marsilio Ficino.
Between 1641 and 1649, Lorenzo Guicciardini supervised the decorations
of Villa Lapeggi for Leopoldo, which were undertaken by Colonna, Mitelli,
Albani, and Chiavistelli.785 Guicciardini functioned as an intermediary when
Leopoldo wanted to buy a Guercino in 1647.786 He also had to look after all the
paintings that moved to Lapeggi from other palaces and was very explicit in
his advice to Leopoldo, when writing in 1649, for instance, that Leopoldo had
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to stop commissioning very large paintings, because they physically could not
enter the villa and there was no place to show them:
Io sono stato un giorno all’Appeggio e ho dato luogo a tutti quei quadri che
vi erono, che si è durata un poca di fatica per essere di misure differenti et uno
in particolare, dove è la Pittura e l’Architettura, che non entrava per nessuna
porta, né in alcuna stanza si poteva adattare, però supplico Vostra Altezza a
non far fare più quadri, perché non ve n’entra più e di quelle grandezze non
sono boni a niente.787
From Rome the patrician Jacopo Salviati sent paintings and sculptures to Leopoldo.788 Another patrician who was supervising the decorations at Lapeggi was
Francesco Rinuccini.789 One of the painters was Marquise Margherita Capponi,
who painted a lunette. It became a real villa di campagna with many genre
paintings (fruit, flowers, buffoons, battles, views of Medici villas, landscapes,
and portraits).790
The acquisition of books and works of art on paper
Throughout his life, Leopoldo was in frequent contact with different patricians
in different functions. One of his tutors was the patrician Jacopo Soldani, a
pupil of Galileo.791 For his service as Leopoldo’s maestro, Soldani’s friend Piero
de’ Bardi compared him with the mythological Chiron, the centaur who raised
Achilles, to denote the importance of this function.792 Soldani advised Leopoldo about which books to buy for his library, including some by the German
geographer Philipp Clüver, who worked for the University of Leiden and pub-
787 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 142. ASF Mediceo del Principato 5397 c629, 19 June 1649, letter from Lorenzo
Guicciardini.
788 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 197, 235. ASF Mediceo del Principato 5521 c.255.
789 In the years before, from 1637 until 1642, Francesco Rinuccini (1603-1678) had been the Tuscan resident
in Venice. From 1656 until his death he was bishop of Pistoia and Prato.
790 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 159 ASF Mediceo del Principato 5449 c497 and 605, see appendix.
791 Jacopo Soldani (1579-1641) studied law and was interested in philosophy, mathematics, physics and
astronomy. He frequented the lessons of Galileo and defended him in one of his satirical verses Satira
contro i peripatetici (1623). The other satirical verses dealt with corruption, the vices and desires of
humans and the search for honour. Soldani was a member of the Accademia Fiorentina from 1597
and of the Alterati from 1599. At the Alterati he held orations at the commemoration ceremonies of
Luigi Alamanni (1603) and Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici (1609). From 1628 he was tutor of Prince
Leopoldo and in 1637 he became senator. He wrote the Trattato delle virtù morali, which remained
unpublished. See Romei 2001; Limentani 1961.
792 Casprini 1994: 77-86 letter from Piero de’ Bardi to Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger 1633.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
793 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 131. Soldani advised Leopoldo to buy books from the German geographer
Philipp Clüver (1580-1622), born in Danzig, who published his books at Leiden, where he studied law
and geography under Joseph Scaliger. See ASF Mediceo del Principato 5550 c. 310, Letter from Jacopo
Soldani to Leopoldo, 19 February 1639, see appendix.
794 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 131, 372. See ASF Mediceo del Principato 5550 c303 and c. 326 (12 June 1638 and
31 March 1639.
795 Mirto 1984: 93. Alessandro Segni (1633-1697) was a pupil of Evangelista Torricelli and was specialized
in natural sciences. From 1662 he was appointed as librarian of Prince Cosimo (the future Grand Duke
Cosimo III) and from 1665 he functioned as librarian for Leopoldo as well. He was tutor of the patrician
Francesco Riccardi during his travels through Europe from 1665-1669 (See 4.3, Relations with European
men of letters). During this trip Leopoldo had assigned him the task to search for rare and precious
books and manuscripts. Segni was a member of the Accademia della Crusca and together with his
good friend Francesco Redi he collaborated on the production of the third edition of the Vocabolario
della Crusca. In 1676 Segni devised the motifs for the ceiling frescoes of the Uffizi Gallery and in 1685
he conceived the iconographic programme for the frescoes by Luca Giordano in the Palazzo Medici
Riccardi. In 1686 he became senator. Segni wrote an unpublished autobiography, which is still in the
Biblioteca Riccardiana (ms. 1882). See ‘Alessandro Segni’, on the website of the Mediateca di Palazzo
Medici Riccardi http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/Scheda_Segni_Alessandro. Retrieved
October 16, 2014.
On Lorenzo Panciatichi, see 4.4 .1 The Svogliati, the Crusca and burlesque poems influenced by the literary
academies.
796 Mirto 2009: 106-12.
797 Barocchi/Bertela 2007: 132. See ASF Mediceo del Principato 5562 c. 113, 121, 135, 163, 170 and 172, all from
the year 1639.
798 Mirto 1984: 6-7, 18. With the help of Carlo Dati Leopoldo ordered a breviary at the Elzevier-company at
Leiden. In the end this project however was not executed.
799 Alessandri 2000: 52.
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lished his books in that city.793 In 1638, Soldani recommended acquiring the
Dialoghi by Galileo and his commenti danteschi.794 Many erudite patricians, who
knew the cultural and commercial value of books, worked for Leopoldo as his
librarians: Francesco Rondinelli until 1665, followed by Alessandro Segni, and
from 1671 Lorenzo Panciatichi.795 Leopoldo started buying books for his library
as early as 1638, helped by Ferdinando de’ Bardi, a patrician who worked for the
Medici in Paris.796 Together with Giovan Battista Barducci, Bardi sent books on
mathematics from Paris to Florence around 1639. Other advice about religious
books came from Vincenzio Capponi.797
After the reformation the art of printing in German-speaking areas such as
Leipzig and Frankfurt flourished, at the expense of publishing companies in
Venice and France. Companies in the Dutch Republic, like Elzevier in Leiden
and Blaeu in Amsterdam, were flourishing, as was the paper industry.798 Many
innovating books on the natural sciences were published there, which explains
Leopoldo’s interest in books from these areas, not surprising for a patron of the
scientific Accademia del Cimento.799
199
200
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All the books from Marseille, Venice, Naples, and Amsterdam arrived at the
port of Livorno. There, before they could be transported to Florence, they had
to remain in quarantine for forty days, or sometimes less - in periods with
no epidemics or after the intercession of the Florentine librarian Antonio
Magliabechi.800 After the quarantine, the books had to be seen by the censors of
the inquisition, who were not that strict about books destined for Leopoldo.801
When the books were ready to travel to Florence, it took a few days for them to
arrive (by boat) or sometimes a week if they had to travel over land.802 Leopoldo,
Magliabechi, and their humanist friends did everything to circumvent the strict
controls by the inquisition and let forbidden books circulate.803 To avoid the
controls in Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna, the books ordered from Venice were
transported over sea.804 If there was a high risk that books might be forbidden,
they were often sent to Carlo Dati instead of Magliabechi, to make them look
less suspicious.805
Over the course of twenty-five years and using many contacts in different
cities as agents, Leopoldo built up a large collection of drawings.806 At one point
he had collected such a vast number of drawings that it had become difficult to
800 Antonio Magliabechi (1633-1714) was the son of a tanner. He began his career as apprentice in a
jewellers workshop, but, as he loved books, he chose another career. He became befriended with
Michele Ermini, librarian of Leopoldo and learned Latin from him. Thanks to Ermini he got to know
Andrea Cavalcanti, Lorenzo Panciatichi, Lorenzo Pucci, and Carlo Dati. He studied the Greek and
Hebrew languages and eventually became librarian of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand II and Cosimo III,
respectively. Magliabechi was an important collector of books and manuscripts and dedicated his
life to this collecting activities. He divided his energy between his own library, the Medicea Palatina
and the other Medici libraries. He created a network of European correspondents and was one of the
protagonists of the Republic of Letters. He was the key figure in a network of intellectuals who came
to him for advice when doing research or having to obtain certain books. After his death he left 30.000
books and manuscripts. This became the nucleus of the first public library in Florence, still existing
as the Biblioteca Nazionale. In this library his whole correspondence is preserved, consisting of 27
volumes with 20.000 largely unpublished letters. See Albanese 2007: 422-27.
801 Mirto 1984: 39.
802 Ibid.: 40.
803 Albanese 2007: 422-27.
804 For the same reason, even Venetians often chose the port of Livorno to receive books from Amsterdam, England, and Germany.
805 Mirto 1984: 45. Carlo Dati (1619-1676) was a philologist and pupil of G.B. Doni, Galileo, and Torricelli and
an active member of several academies, the Apatisti, the Fiorentina, the Platonica, the Percossi, the
Crusca and the Cimento. At the Crusca (with the pseudonym Smarrito) he was one of the most important contributors to the third edition of the Vocabolario. In 1657 he published his Discorso dell’obbligo di
ben parlare la propria lingua, originally meant as an introduction to G.B. Strozzi’s Osservazioni intorno al
parlare e scrivere toscano and D. Buonmattei’s Declinazione de’ versi, which were united in one volume
at the time. See Vigilante 1987: 24-28.
806 Chiarini De Anna 1975: 39.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
807 Ibid.: 40.
808 Ibid.: 39-40.
809 Ibid.: 43-45. His correspondents were: in Venice—Paolo del Sera, Stefano della Bella, Pietro della Vecchia,
Sebastiano Mazzoni (Florentine painter), and Nicolas Regnier (Flemish painter); in Siena—Ludovico
Vecchi and his circle of painters Ramaciotti, Deifebo Burbarini, and Casolani, Flaminio Borghesi, and
the painter Raffaello Vanni; in Senigallia—Alessandro Nappi and the painter Vincenzo Patanazzi
from Urbino; in Urbino—Giovan Battista Michelori and Domenico Maria Corsi; in Modena—Giovan
Francesco di Gaspero and the painters Giovanni Tangheldri and Livio Mehus; in Cremona—Giovanni
Battista Natali; in Genua—Giovan Battista Bolognetti; in Bologna—Bonaventura Bisi, Giuseppe
Maria Casarenghi, Ferdinando Cospi, Giacomo Zanoni, Giuseppe Maria Abati, Carlo Cesare Malvasia,
Annibale Ranuzzi and the painters Domenico Maria Canuti and Cesare Gennari; in Rome—Pietro da
Cortona, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ciro Ferri, Giovanni Maria Morandi, Monsignor Domenico Maria Corsi,
Ottavio, Francesco and Paolo Falconieri (Ottavio also travelled to Flanders in 1659 and 1673 and bought
drawings of Rubens and Van Dyck on those occasions); and in Antwerp—Canonico Happart.
810 Meloni Trkulja 1975: 17
811 Ibid.: 18.
812 Chiarini De Anna 1975: 45.
813 Meloni Trkulja 1975: 18.
chapter 4
organize them. Exactly at that moment the solution to the problem presented
itself in the person of Filippo Baldinucci. At some time before 1665, Baldinucci
had given Leopoldo some drawings accompanied by a very clear catalogue.807
Therefore, Leopoldo ordered him in 1665 to catalogue all his drawings and
think about some attributions. Eight years later, Baldinucci finished his twentyvolume list, chronologically ordered from Cimabue in the Duecento until the
drawings of contemporary artists from the Seicento.808 By the end of his life
Leopoldo possessed 12,000 drawings.
To acquire these, Leopoldo had sent his agents in different cities lists
on which he indicated which drawings he was still missing.809 His contacts
included noblemen, diplomats, and clergymen – and the painters they patronized - in cities such as Rome, Bologna, Modena, Venice, and even Antwerp.810
The gentlemen in those cities often collected paintings themselves, knew the
local art markets, and were aware of which drawings were on offer.811 Their
painters were asked to check if drawings were authentic.812 Often drawings were
sent to Leopoldo, who checked them again with his favourite assistants, the
painters Sustermans and Il Volterrano, who helped him decide which drawings
he wanted to buy and those he wanted to return.813 What is remarkable is that
among his network of agents that acquired the drawings, there were almost no
Florentine patricians, contrary to the network that acquired his books.
In addition to drawings, Leopoldo’s agents also helped him collect miniature portraits (589), coins, medals (7,000 of which 4,000 antique), cameos
(900), paintings (730, among them 33 by Bolognese painters such as Caracci,
201
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Guercino and Guido Reni), sculptures (318, many of which were bronzetti; he
possessed only 32 marble sculptures), oriental porcelain (of which 800 were
bought by Francesco Feroni in Amsterdam), maiolica (120), and silver objects
(515). Leopoldo preferred to spend money to specific specializations for example in his collection of medals or books, instead of collecting only famous
names. As a result, his coins and medal collections were so complete that errors in the chronological history of antiquity could be corrected.814 He often
loaned his books or showed his medals to interested dilettantes and did not
concern himself terribly if they were returned or not. He thought the contents
of his collection could serve as study-objects. After his death, his humanist
friends bemoaned the loss of this open approach to collecting. Abbot Enrico
Noris for example complained that Cosimo III never allowed others to look
at his thousands of medals, while Leopoldo enjoyed to share them (“io sono
il Tantalo vicino a quasi trentamila medaglie di S.A. senza poterne vedere pur
una. Il signor cardinale molto Leopoldo a tutti mostrava i suoi scrigni, e godeva
farli vedere”).815
Leopoldo’s interest in the theatre life at different Italian courts
Around Carnival, many of Leopoldo’s correspondents, most of them patricians,
wrote him about the Carnival activities in the cities where they resided. The
patricians could, in the words of Alessandri “farsi occhi e orecchi del principe
assente” (be the eyes and ears of the absent prince), so that he could “conoscere
e giudicare” (have knowledge of and give his opinion about) cultural events.816
In 1640, Jacopo Soldani wrote him about the Carnival celebration at the
Sienese court of Mattias de’ Medici. He wrote that Cavalier Martelli, who was
also present, could write about it more elaborately. In the following years, he
received letters from Lorenzo Guicciardini, Niccolò Panciatichi, and Balì Ugo
della Stufa with their opinions and accounts about theatre performances. 817
Many of the letters speak about Carnival, masked processions, vigils, private
dinners, and conversations in the palaces and villas of the patricians.818 Often
814
815
816
817
Ibid.: 20.
Ibid.: 29.
Alessandri 2000: 95.
Letter from Lorenzo Guicciardini to Leopoldo, 21 November 1640, ASF Mediceo del Principato 5575
c 184 bis r, cited by Alessandri (2000), see appendix. The title of Balì was one of the highest ranks in
several chivalric orders.
818 Ibid.: 96.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
Ibid.: 111.
Ibid.: 98.
Ibid.: 99. ASF Mediceo del Principato 5527 c 372 r-v (letters of Antinori)
Pier Francesco Rinuccini (1592-1657) was the son of the poet and librettist Ottavio Rinuccini, the writer
of the first opera in history, La Dafne (1597). Pier Francesco was most probably the author of Il corago,
o vero alcune osservazioni per metter bene in scena le composizioni drammatiche (ca. 1630), a manual
which gives instruction in the art of stage direction for spoken and sung drama. See Guccini 2002:
125-26.
Alessandri 2000: 100. ASF Mediceo del Principato 5545 c 630 r (Carlo del Nero); ASF Mediceo del Principato 5527 c 370r-v , 26 February 1641 (Alfonso Antinori from Milan).
Alessandri 2000: 103. Filippo Soldani (1630-1674) was the son of Jacopo Soldani and bishop of Fiesole.
Ibid.: 115. 11 February 1651.
ASF Mediceo del Principato 5550 c 325 r, 29 May 1638, Letter from Soldani to Leopoldo, see appendix.
Alessandri 2000: 109.
chapter 4
travelling theatre companies passed Florence and private citizens opened their
doors for them, like Monsignore Corsi in 1639.819
Sometimes Leopoldo knew the people who wrote him about the Carnival
celebrations only from their letters.820 One example was Alfonso Antinori, who
travelled with Mattias de’ Medici and described the theatre activities everywhere they passed (Venice, Modena, Ferrara) in separate letters to Giovan Carlo
and Leopoldo.821 From Milan, Carnival descriptions came from Pier Francesco
Rinuccini (who found the Milanese Carnival boring), from Genoa, they came
from Giovan Battista Bolognetti.822 People returning from the marriage of Anna
de’ Medici and Ferdinand Charles of Austria in 1646 in Innsbruck, like Carlo
Ventura del Nero, wrote Leopoldo about the Carnival celebration in Mantua.823
From Bologna, letters arrived from Paolo del Bufalo (1645-75) and the agent
Filippo Soldani, Jacopo’s son.824 In 1651, the same Filippo Soldani wrote him
about the activities at the palace of Margherita Branciforte (1604-1659), Princess of Butera and the widow of Federigo Colonna.825
When Leopoldo was away from Florence, his correspondents kept him up
to date about the cultural developments at home. Niccolò Panciatichi (16081648) wrote him about the theatre in the palazzo di Parione of Don Lorenzo
and of the Accademia dei Concordi. Soldani wrote him about a popular way
to celebrate the spring on the first of May by performing a ballet and singing
a ‘maggio’, on the field of the confraternity of the Vangelista.826 Because Leopoldo knew everybody in Florence, the tone of those letters is often ironical.827
Together all those letters from different parts of Italy and Europe functioned
as a collection of the most up to date knowledge about cultural festivities, ideas
that could be tucked away for consideration about what was possible in the
203
204
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future in Florence, as is remarked by Alessandri.828 Sometimes the letters speak
about the qualities of rising theatre companies, so that Leopoldo could be prepared for their good or mediocre quality.829 In exchange for all the information,
Leopoldo sent books and cultural information about festivities and academies in
Florence. 830 Other times Leopoldo included libretti, scores, posters, prints, and
descriptions with his letters, which was also a form of Medici-propaganda. 831
Leopoldo answered all his correspondents enthusiastically and he often sent
invitations for theatre performances in Florence and promised to look after
places to sleep for the gentlemen and their servants in convents like Santa
Trinita and Santo Spirito.832 Leopoldo also wrote about his own activities to his
correspondents, as in this brief fragment to Lorenzo Strozzi:
[…] Intendo che per hoggi saremo invitati ad un festino per trattenimento
da cavalieri, e domani haveremo qui in palazzo la mia solita accademia per
trattenimento da accademici: oggi pasceremo gl’occhi e domani l’intelletto
[…] 833
Relations with European men of letters
When Leopoldo travelled to Rome in 1668 to receive his cardinal’s hat, he saw
theatrical performances in various cardinals’ palaces and villas, and frequented
the circles of the Aldobrandini, Acquaviva, Imperiali, Omodei, Pio, Borromeo,
and Gualtieri. In these palaces he dined with several Florentine patricians who
resided in Rome, the marquises Corsi, Riccardi, and Albizi, and with senator
Acciaiuoli and Signor Ugo della Stufa.834 When he could not travel himself,
Leopoldo tried to maintain his ties with European men of letters by letting
his courtiers stay with them when they visited their countries. One of these
courtiers was the patrician Francesco Riccardi (1648-1719), who made a long
journey of instruction to prepare himself for the official functions at court. The
patrician Alessandro Segni (1633-1697) accompanied him on this trip as his
personal teacher.835 The journey took them through Italy (Loreto and Rome),
828
829
830
831
832
Ibid.: 132, 135.
Ibid.: 134.
Ibid.: 132, 135.
Ibid.: 139.
Ibid.: 132, 135 - ASF Mediceo del Principato 5548 c 777, 8 June 1654, letter from Pier Francesco Rinuccini
to Leopoldo, see appendix.
833 Leopoldo to Lorenzo Strozzi, from Siena 16 July 1636: ASF Carte Strozziane serie V 1121 inserto 1 c.n.n.
834 Alessandri 2000: 35, 39.
835 Minicucci 1985: 11; Minicucci 1983: 122. ASF Riccardi, f 818, ins 1.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
...di buonissima ora andai alla bottega del Blaeu. Parlai col signor Giovanni e
appresso col signor Pietro suo figliuolo, e sodisfece con tutti due gli ordini che
avevo del signor Principe Leopoldo di riverirgli il suo nome. [...] Comparve
836 Minicucci 1985: 5, 18. During this trip he visites Lyon, Paris, Fontainebleau, Prague, Brussels, Lissabon
and the Escorial.
837 De Julius 1981: 59. In London Riccardi and Segni met some members of the Royal Society and in Paris
they made the acquaintance of Gilles Ménage, the author of the book Origins of the Italian Language
(1669). See ‘Alessandro Segni’, on the website of the Mediateca di Palazzo Medici Riccardi http://www.
palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/Scheda_Segni_Alessandro. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
838 Minicucci 1985: 12-13. They saw libraries in Turin (royal library) and Paris (Sorbonne and royal library),
and Jesuit libraries in Orléans, Clermont Ferrand, Tornai, Antwerp, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Hamburg,
Wolfenbüttel and Venice. Source: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, N.A. 665: Diario del viaggio
d’Europa fatto dal Sig. March. Francesco Riccardi. (19 October 1665 until 16 March 1667). About Amsterdam and the office of Blau, see A. Segni, Diario del viaggio col Marchese Francesco Riccardi, B.R.F., Ms.
2296 bis 2299, see appendix.
839 Minicucci 1985: 16. Letters from Leopoldo (3 and 10 April 1666): See Ricc 2295, c.145, 177, 193 for letters of
20 February 1665 and 20 July and 23 October 1666). See appendix.
840 On Cosimo III’s travels in the Netherlands, see Wagenaar/Eringa 2014; Mirto/Van Veen 1993; Van Veen/
McCormick 1985.
841 Alessandri 2000: 78. After his journey Francesco Riccardi had the functions of Cavallerizzo Maggiore,
Consigliere di Stato, Gentiluomo di Camera and Maggiordomo. In 1673, he undertook a diplomatic
mission to Vienna (again with Alessandro Segni) to congratulate the Holy Roman Emperor on his
second marriage. See Minicucci 1985: 5, 21-22.
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France, the Netherlands, Flanders, Germany, Bohemia, and Austria between
1665 and 1667.836 In the course of the next two years they made a second trip,
this time to Flanders, France, Spain, Portugal, and England.837 Riccardi and Segni
reported to Leopoldo everything they saw and experienced, and made many
comparisons between Florence and the places they saw (villas and palaces of
princes).838 Leopoldo was very interested in their writings and waited anxiously
for their letters, which let him travel, as he put it, without any discomfort
(“viaggiare senza incomodo”).839
In Paris, Segni and Riccardi met the young Prince Cosimo (the future Grand
Duke Cosimo III), who was undertaking a long journey of instruction as well,
together with Lorenzo Magalotti.840 Every time Segni and Riccardi went to a
new country they read the historical treatises and books about that country
to be better prepared. For Leopoldo they had to visit still unknown museums,
libraries, and publishers and forge new relations between them and Florence.841
The two patricians helped Leopoldo enlarge his cultural and scientific scope.
When in June 1666 they visited the publisher Blaeu in Amsterdam, which was
famous for its geographic maps, Segni reported enthusiastically about this visit:
205
206
Chapter Four
il signor marchese Francesco e tutti insieme andamma a vedere la stamperia
de’ signori Blaeu, che è in luogo assai lontano dalla casa, e bottega loro. Colà
in grandi armadi sono i rami per le figure cosmografiche. In una stanza a
lato sono i torcoli per tirare le medesime figure in numero di nove. In altro
simil salone sono parimenti nove torcoli, distinti co’ nomi delle Muse, per
istampare. Nella parte più alta della casa sono i magazzini con molti lavori
fatti, e in particolare libri di rosso e nero, come Breviari, Messali, e simili,
per la valuta de’ quali passa d’Italia gran somma di denaro in Olanda; in altre
stanze ci mostrarono caratteri latini, greci, ebraici, siriaci, persiani, arabi e
tedeschi, strumenti e madri per gettare i medesimi caratteri, e grandissima
quantità di strumenti Cosmografici e Astronomici.842
One can only imagine Leopoldo’s pleasure when reading about these visits.
Pieter Blaeu also wrote to Antonio Magliabechi in Florence about the visit of
Segni and Riccardi and noted that they bought a lot of books from him, some
of which were destined for Leopoldo’s library.843
Thanks to all his travels, Francesco Riccardi had a very international art
collection. He bought many Flemish genre paintings.844 Apart from paintings,
he also acquired many books for his own library during his journeys with Segni.
Together with the books and manuscripts he inherited from Gabriello, Cosimo
and Riccardo Riccardi, and with the 2500 books and some hundred manuscripts he inherited from Vincenzo Capponi, the father of his wife, Cassandra
Capponi, he had an extensive collection of books about linguistics, history,
philosophy, theology, politics, science, juridical questions, and antique and
842 Mirto 1984: 23-24. This is a fragment from the ‘Viaggio di Alessandro Segni col Signor Marchese Francesco Riccardi’, BRF (Ms. Aut. RICC 2296, ff. 231/232) adì 28 giugno Lunedì, Amsterdam.
843 Mirto 1984: 24. Bleau to Antonio Magliabechi, 9 July 1666, BNCF Fondo Nazionale, II-I, 382, see appendix. On the letters Pieter Bleau wrote to Leopoldo, Magliabechi and Cosimo III de’ Medici, see Mirto/
Van Veen 1993.
844 De Julius 1981: 58. ASF carte Riccardi 272 en 309: these Flemish paintings from the collection of Francesco Riccardi were exhibited in 1706 in SS Annunziata. Apart from Italian paintings, F. Borroni Salvadori
(1974: 1-166) mentions for this exhibition two paintings from the German Peter Philip Roos (Monsù
Rosa, p.118), one of them with animals. At the exhibition of 1737, many Flemish paintings were exhibited, but it is not certain whether they were bought by Francesco or Vincenzo Riccardi. It was probably
Vincenzo, as they were not exhibited in 1706. Among these paintings are landscapes (sometimes with
animals) by Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708), Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) and Jan Baptist Weenix
(1621-1659), seascapes by Hendrick Dubbels (1621-1707) and Casper Adriaensz. van Wittel (1653-1736, in
Italian he was called Gaspero degli occhiali/Monsù Gaspero), architectural church paintings by Peter
Neefs the elder (1578-1656) and Hendrik van Steenwijck (II) (1580-1649), and a bambocciante painting
by David Teniers (1582-1649). Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
207
Italian literature. He decided he would like to open his library to the public and
even made a reading room for this purpose. His son Cosimo (1671-1751) realized this goal for him. The magnificent Biblioteca Riccardiana, which contains
autograph manuscripts of Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino, Poliziano (Politian), and
Pico della Mirandola, remains open to the public to this day.845
Part II
4.4 Patricians, artists, and their literary, linguistic, and theatrical experiments
at Florentine cultural academies and confraternities
845 ‘Presentazione, cenni storici’. In Biblioteca Riccardiana Firenze. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.
riccardiana.firenze.sbn.it/main.php
846 Conrieri 2003: 370. Alessandro Adimari (1579-1649) was a poet who studied the Greek and Latin languages and translated and annotated many antique works. His most famous book was his annotated
version of the Odi di Pindaro (The Odes of Pindar) (Pisa, 1631). He was a member of the Accademia
Fiorentina and of the Alterati and most probably also of the Lincei in Rome. Besides orations for the
Medici family, he wrote six volumes of sonnets. See D’Addario 1960: 277-78.
847 Conrieri 2003: 375.
chapter 4
Many patricians joined the Florentine cultural academies at a very young age
and saw each other several times a week at different academies. As they grew
older and their responsibilities increased, they continued to correspond with
each other about cultural subjects and exchanged cultural objects and information from different courts in Europe. In this way, the Medici court remained
informed about new developments in the fields of music, poetry, theatre, art,
collecting, and libraries. Written as well as oral culture was discussed. Within
the academies, patricians also came into contact with foreign men of letters
and many artists, thus giving them access to large networks that were useful to
them in their capacity as brokers.
Within the cultural academies the patricians discussed literature, poetry,
painting, and theatre, experimented with literary genres, and dedicated poems
to each other. An example is the patrician Alessandro Adimari (1579-1649),
who published in 1628 an introduction to the Poesie ditirambiche, written by
the patricians Francesco Maria Gualterotti and Carlo Marucelli.846 Gualterotti
was canon of Santa Maria del Fiore, poet, and musicologist, and dedicated
his dithyramb La morte d’Orfeo to Piero de’ Bardi.847 Gualterotti and Marucelli
wanted to prove that it was possible to compose dithyrambs in the Tuscan language and not only in the Greek language, which contained many compound
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words. To show what their dithyrambs were like, here is a fragment from Morte
d’Orfeo of Gualterotti:
più donne ebrifestevoli
ivi arrivar, che liete
brilliballischerzavano
corisalti facevano
e ripiene di vin cantiululavano
a onor di Bacco vincitor sublime
che il crin pampinicinge 848
The academicians also criticised each other’s poems. There was a large social
and cultural cohesion within the academies and the patricians conversed in a
common cultural language. In this section we will discuss two kinds of academies, literary and theatrical.
4.4.1 Literary and linguistic academies
The Apatisti
There were several academies in which linguistic and literary experiments were
the main focus. We will discuss the main characteristics by analysing a few of
these academies, beginning with the Accademia degli Apatisti (c. 1632-1783),
which was famous for its word games that helped train its members in rhetoric
and prepare them for positions in government.849 When they joined the academy, new members made up an anagram using the letters of their first and last
names. These names were often very humorous anagrams that seemed to make
the member absurd, of low descent, or appear like someone from another region
of Italy altogether. Some examples are Don Lopez de Cuscira (for Alessandro
Pucci), Ammonio Platonici (for Antonio Ciampoli), Lucano da Recanati (for
Andrea Cavalcanti), Boemonte Battidenti (for D. Benedetto Buonmattei), and
Balì Scoprifrode (for Pietro Frescobaldi). The names served as a kind of a mask
that made the member freer to act and publish things within the academy.850
848
849
850
Ibid.
Lazzeri 1983: 7.
Ibid.: 14, 15, 20, 69, 72. A list of members with their anagrams:
Agostino Coltellini – Ostilio Contalgeni; Agostino Nelli – Antonio Gelli; Alessandro Pucci – Don Lopez
de Cuscira; P. Andrea Busono – Adriano Usebi; Antonio Ciampoli – Ammonio Platonici; Andrea Cavalcanti Lucano da Recanati; Carlo Roberto Dati – Currado Bartoletti, later Ardaclito; Anton F. Arrighi
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
– Conte Acrisio Rangoni; P. Bastiano Ulivi – Silvano Abati; Benedetto Baldesi – Baldo de’ Benattesi;
D. Benedetto Buonmattei – Boemonte Battidenti; Carlo Gerini- Ciro Angeli; Domenico dell’Ancisa –
Nicodemo Ansaldi; Domenico Bardelli – Bandinel Comorli; D. Ermando Montalvi – Don Armeno Lunati;
Francesco Lorenzi – Cipriano Zolfi; Ferdinando della Rena – Don Aleandro Floredani; Francesco Teri –
Ferrante Cosci; D. Francesco Rovai – Rainero Fucasco; Ab. Giuliano de’ Ricci – Guicciardin Leri; Giov. Ant.
Francini – fra Antonio Figio; Gio. B. Teri – Bastiano Gualtieri; Gio B. Livizzani – Balì Gustavo Miniatazzi;
Giulio Berti – Gilberto Vai; Iacopo Tosi – Appio Stoico; Iacopo Galigai – Acciauolo Paggi; Niccolò Teri
– Neri Accolti; Niccolò Cecchi – Cola Cecchini; Pietro Salvetti – Livio Serpetta; Pietro Frescobaldi – Balì
scoprifrode; Ridolfo Paganelli – Lionelli da Parigi; Romolo Bertini – Tiberio Romano; Vaio de Vai – Tuone
Vida; Venanzio Mattei da Camerino – Lattanzia poeta; Zanobi Nacci – Baccio Zanni; Niccolò Bonaiuti
– Vituccio Annoboli; Lorenzo Lippi – Pierozzo Pelli; Averardo Niccolini – don Valerio Ricci; Carlo de’
Bardi – Baldo Carredi; Giovanni Medici – Egidio Mannucci; Domenico dell’Ancisa – Niccodemo Ansaldi;
Giulio Gherardi – Vergilio Draghi; can. Carlo de’ Bardi – Bardo Carrel; Can. Alessandro Ridolfi – Don
Flonsel de Aras; Segretario Alessandro Segni – Don Angelo Sarsi; Sen. Andrea Pitti – Pindaro Teti; can
fra Francesco Curradi – can fra Dino Cresci; Sig Jacopo Salviati duca di Giuliano – duca Iosia Paleoti;
Ipolito Pandolfini – Don Piloto Panfini; Ottavio Bartolini – Attilio Buonarroti
Lazzeri 1983: 5.
Arthos 1968: 18.
Mamone 2003b: 285.
Lazzeri 1983: 31
Ibid.: 5.
Ibid.: 8.
Boutier 2005b: 431. On Carlo Dati, see section 4.3.
Kiefer Lewalski 2000: 93.
Arthos 1968: 19.
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The Accademia degli Apatisti was founded by Agostino Coltellini, who surrounded himself with friends to discuss literature, science, and art.851 Coltellini
himself specialized in law and in the Greek, Latin, Chaldaen, Arabic, and Syrian
languages.852 In its first years, the academy gathered in his house in the Via
dell’Oriolo.853 Because of all the discussions and word games the Academy of
the Apatisti was also called ‘Università di Letterati e di Virtuosi’.854 It began
as a ‘conversazione virtuosa’, but soon became a real academy.855 Its members
belonged to the old patrician families.856 The secretary of the academy was
Carlo Dati.857 One of the key figures of the academy was Jacopo Gaddi, one of
Dati’s best friends.858 The reunions were often in his house, Palazzo Gaddi in
the actual Via del Giglio, and with good weather the Apatisti met in the gardens
of Via Melarancio, next to Palazzo Gaddi, or in the Villa Camerata at Fiesole.859
Their emblem was a sun, accompanied by a motto from Tasso: “oltre i confini
ancor del mondo nostro”. Another emblem was a mirror, accompanied by a
motto from Dante’s Purgatorio: “che la figura impressa non trasmuta”. The fact
that they took their motto from Tasso shows that they were enthusiastic about
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this author, while the Accademia della Crusca promoted Ariosto and had an
anti-Tasso attitude.860
The Apatisti was a very open academy and attracted many foreign scholars
who were willing to meet Florentine scholars in an informal setting. Among
the most celebrated was the English poet John Milton, who visited the Apatisti
between July and September 1638, and again the following spring from March
to May.861 Foreign scholars were not welcome in the Crusca academy. Milton
praised the Apatisti as that “Florentine institution which deserves great praise
not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly
intercourse”.862 In 1637, many Polish, English, French, and Flemish members
joined the academy.863 Their presentations were often multilingual, which was
unique in the Florentine academy-life.864
For many years after his return to England, John Milton continued to correspond with “all the kind and congenial friends and companions I left behind
me in that one city, so distant but so well beloved”. In a letter to Carlo Dati in
1647, he writes about his melancholy when he thinks of all those friends from
the Florentine academies who are his soul mates but who live so far away:
Soon an even more depressing thought came into my mind, a thought which
often makes me lament my fortune, namely that those who are closely bound
to me by the fact of neighbourhood or by some other tie of no real importance,
either by chance or by some legal claim, though they have nothing else to
commend them to me, are with me every day, deafen me with their noise,
and, I swear torment me as often as they choose; while those who are so greatly
endeared to me by sympathy of manners, disposition and tastes, are almost
all separated from me either by death or by the cruel accident of distance, and
are as a rule snatched from my sight so swiftly that I am compelled to spend
my life in almost perpetual loneliness.865
This letter proves the close friendships that could be formed within the academies. He ends his letter by greeting his other friends: “Meanwhile my dear
860
861
862
863
864
865
Lazzeri 1983: 31.
Kiefer Lewalski 2000: 89.
Ibid.: 90 He quotes Milton’s Defensio Secunda, CPW IV.I 615-17.
Lazzeri 1983: 16, 18.
Kiefer Lewalski 2000: 92.
Ibid.: 102. He cites Phyllis B. Tillyard, Milton’s private correspondence and academic exercises, Cambridge
1932, see appendix.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
866 After an unsure start in the third decennium of the seventeenth century, the Accademia degli Apatisti
was refounded in 1649 and flourished until 1783. Writings of Maria Clemente Ruoti: Giacob patriarca,
1637, Il Natal di Cristo, 1657.
867 Michelassi 2005: 451.
868 Lazzeri 1983: 19.
869 Castelli/Testaverde 2007: 11; Vuelta García 2005: 483, 485, 488; Lazzeri 1983: 9, 19.
870 Lazzeri 1983: 20.
871 Castelli/Testaverde 2007: 12.
872 Lazzeri 1983: 20.
873 Ibid.: 24.
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Carlo, I send my good wishes to you, and to Coltellini, Francini, Frescobaldi,
Malatesti, the younger Chimentelli, and to any other of my good friends whom
you know: and pray convey my respects to the whole of Gaddi’s Academy”.
The Apatisti was one of the few academies in which women were welcome,
like the nun Maria Clemente Ruoti.866 The most important intellectuals were
subscribed and many of them joined both the academies of the Svogliati and
the Apatisti, like Rondinelli, Cavalcanti, and Jacopo Gaddi.867 And mostly
they were also active at the official Crusca and Fiorentina-academies.868 Other
famous members were the Danish scientist Niels Stensen; Giovan Filippo Marucelli, Tuscan ambassador at the court of Louis XIV; the scholar and antiquarian
Cassiano dal Pozzo; the German humanist, geographer, and historian Lucas
Holstenius; the poet and dramatist Pietro Susini; Mattias Maria Bartolommei;
Ludovico Adimari; Alessandro Adimari; Alessandro Pucci; Senator Strozzi; Marquis Malaspina; Antonio Ricasoli; Francesco Redi; Lorenzo Magalotti; and the
artists Stefano della Bella, Giusto Sustermans, Ferdinando Tacca, Francesco Curradi, Lorenzo Lippi, and Vincenzo Dandini.869 The artist-members also made
artworks for the academy. Francesco Curradi had made four paintings of the
patron saints of the academy, Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Saint
Filippo Neri, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Augustine.870
A practice the Apatisti copied from the Crusca in 1636 was the cicalate. A
cicalata was an exaggerated discussion about a subject that was hardly worth
discussing.871 Furthermore, the Apatisti continued the stravizzi of the Cruscaacademy, which were called simposi, a reference to ancient Greece.872 During
the simposi, the Apatisti played all kinds of word-games and they discussed
dubbi, doubtful cases. Every time a doubtful case was introduced, three persons
had to give improvised pros and cons and the Apatista Reggente (who was
nominated for one month) decided who was right. The doubts were a mix of
literary, scientific, religious, and profane cases.873 Sometimes the questions are
still very apt, like the question: “Which of the two situations is the most happy:
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being a bachelor or being married?” Another question was whether most of the
Tuscan language derived from Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, or Cardinal Bembo.
They were all intellectual games.874 From 1649, another intellectual game was
introduced. It was called the ‘gioco del Sibillone’ – the Sybil game. Something
was asked to a young member (the Sybil) of ten to twelve years old and he
had to answer very fast. After his answer, two interpreters began to explain
his answer. One of the questions was for example: “Why do women cry more
often and more easily than men?” The answer often had nothing to do with
the subject (in this case the answer was “paglia” or “straw”), but afterwards they
could discuss it for forty-five minutes, looking for arguments to support the
answer. It was all meant to practise their improvising skills. It had a humorous
character and was often played with Carnival.875
The Svogliati, the Crusca and burlesque poems influenced by the literary academies
An academy more aimed at intellectual discussions than games, was the Accademia degli Svogliati (founded around 1638), whose members discussed
poetry, theatre, and theology. They convened every Thursday in the palace
of the academy’s founder, Jacopo Gaddi (the Hotel Astoria in Via del Giglio,
Piazza Madonna), and together they read poems, plays, theological essays, and
lives of the saints.876 Sometimes they produced literary works together. In 1638,
Jacopo Gaddi published his Elogiographus scilicet Elogia omnigena, a collection
of panegyric poems on illustrious men and in 1639 the Svogliati collaborated
on a translation of this from Latin into Italian. In the Vatican archive, I found
some letters of Gaddi to Francesco Barberini in which he asks the Cardinal’s
opinion about these Elogi storici in versi, e’n prosa before publishing them.877 The
members of the Svogliati were ex-members of the youth confraternity Arcangelo Raffaello, who had probably grown too old for the youthful confraternity.
874 Castelli/Testaverde 2007: 11; Lazzeri 1983: 25. The dubbi in italian: Quale dei due stadi sia il più felice
o quello dello scapolo o quello del maritato. Se la toscana lingua debba più a Dante, al Boccaccio, al
Petrarca o al cardinal Bembo. Other dubbi: Which language do the reunited blessed souls in paradise
speak? Did they have to allow women to study? Which hair colour gives the most beauty to a woman:
blonde or black? Who should to be praised more, Dante or Vergil? Is it better to write poems in Tuscan
or in Latin? What is better for a man: to fulfil a civic function for the republic or to enrich himself in science and the other virtuosi esercizi? (Se più convenga all’uomo l’impiegarsi in servizio della repubblica
o il perfezionare se stesso nelle scienze e con gli altri virtuosi esercizi.) Conrieri 2003: 385 gives another
dubbio: E’ meglio perdonare o vendicarsi?
875 Lazzeri 1983: 26; Castelli/Testaverde 2007: 12. Perche le donne piangono più sovente e più facilmente
degli uomini?
876 Kiefer Lewalski 2000: 92.
877 BAV Barb Latino 6464, Lettere di Jacopo Gaddi (1623-1648), ff. 10 + 12 (28 May and 12 August 1639).
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
878 Michelassi 2005: 451.
879 ‘Primordi e fondazione’. In Accademia della Crusca. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/laccademia/storia/primordi-fondazione.
880 ‘Il primo Vocabolario’. In Accademia della Crusca. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/laccademia/storia/primo-vocabolario.
881 ‘La seconda edizione’. In Accademia della Crusca. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/laccademia/storia/seconda-edizione.
882 ‘La terza edizione’. In Accademia della Crusca. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/laccademia/storia/terza-edizione.
883 Imbert 1906: 157-58.
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Many members of the Apatisti were also subscribed to the Svogliati-academy,
like Rondinelli, Cavalcanti, Jacopo Gaddi, and John Milton. Furthermore, the
academy attracted poets and dramatists such as Alessandro Adimari, Giovan
Carlo Coppola, Camillo Lenzoni, Giovanni Battista Doni, Andrea Cavalcanti,
Francesco Rondinelli, Pietro Salvetti, Carlo Dati, Orazio Rucellai, Benedetto
Buonmattei, Girolamo Bartolommei, and Francesco Rovai.878
At the same time that the patricians frequented the more informal academies
of the Apatisti and Svogliati, they were also members of the official Accademia
della Crusca, where, in this period (1630-60) there was a concentration on word
games and literary experiments as well. One of the goals of the Accademia della
Crusca was to purify the language. This concentration on the Tuscan language
led to exaggerated word jokes and games, and comical discussions during informal dinners. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Accademia
della Crusca was, with the Accademia Fiorentina, the most important official
academy. Almost all the members of the traditional oligarchic families were
subscribed. The Accademia della Crusca, which still exists, was founded in 1582
and there were many literary discussions about contemporary Italian books like
Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.879 From 1590, the
Crusca-members worked on a dictionary of the Italian language, the Vocabolario, the aim of which was to preserve the beauty of the fourteenth-century
Florentine language of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. This language had to be
complemented with words from the poems of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Machiavelli
and Ariosto, who was not even a Florentine citizen.880 The first edition of the
Vocabolario was published in 1612 and the second in 1623, both in Venice.881
The third edition was published in Florence in 1691.882
Like the Accademia degli Alterati, members of the Accademia della Crusca
had pseudonyms. The names did not have to do with wine, like at the Alterati,
but with chaff (crusca) and wheat.883 The chaff (the unpurified language) had to
be separated from the wheat (the purified language). Instead of the serious dis-
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cussions at the Fiorentina, at the Crusca they had comical discussions, cruscate,
with their humble pseudonyms as an extra comical accent.884 The pseudonyms
were painted on chair backs together with mottos from famous poems.885
Seventeenth-century men of letters preferred the Accademia della Crusca
above the Fiorentina because of its informal reunions. There were weekly dinners (stravizzi) in member’s villas, where they had pleasure with cicalate, word
jokes in which humble objects like food were glorified in an exaggerated way.886
Niccolò Arrighetti wrote for example a cicalata sul cetriolo (about the cucumber)
and a cicalata sulla torta (about the cake). Piero Dini wrote a cicalata with the
title La nemicizia dell’acqua e del vino (the hostility between the water and the
wine). Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger composed many cicalate for the
Crusca stravizzi between 1632 and 1647.
For these dinners, the patricians wrote also poems that were concentrated
on vernacular language, word games, and calembours,887 like Francesco Redi’s
dithyramb Bacco in Toscana, from 1666. In his poem, Redi wanted to show off
not only his linguistic skills, but also his knowledge of history, geography, and
wine. It began as a joke with fifty verses for the Crusca stravizzi, but by the
time of its final publication in 1685 it had grown to a thousand verses. In the
story, Bacchus has emigrated to Tuscany and sits on the Poggio Imperiale, while
drinking wine from a variety of different regions and singing with Arianna. The
dithyramb incidentally mentions all of Redi’s friends, including many Florentine patricians as well as non-Tuscan correspondents. Therefore it was called an
‘opera sociale’. To have an idea of the character of dithyrambs of the Florentine
patricians, here is a fragment of the poem:
884 ‘Primordi e fondazione’. In Accademia della Crusca. Retrieved January 30, 2014: http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/laccademia/storia/primordi-fondazione.
885 Imbert 1906: 159.
886 Rossi 1995a: 156; Dolci 1962: 308-09; Formichetti 1991: 158-59.
887 A calembour is a pun that plays on the different meanings of homophones, which mostly creates a
funny effect, for example: Imagine us/ I’m a genius.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
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E se a te
E se a te brindisi io fo
Perché a me
Perché a me
Perché a me faccia il buon pro,
il buon pro
Arianuccia leggiadribelluccia
Cantami un po…
Cantami un po…
Cantami un poco, e ricantami tu
Sulla vio…
Sulla viola la cuccurucù
La cuccurucù
Sulla viola la cuccurucù 888
888 Conrieri 2003: 375.
889 Lorenzo Panciatichi (1635-1676) was the son of Niccolò Panciatichi and Ginevra Soldani, the daughter
of senator Jacopo Soldani. He studied law and during a stay in Rome he learned the Greek language.
Back in Florence he became a member of the Accademia Fiorentina, the Accademia della Crusca, and
the Accademia degli Apatisti. At the Crusca he wrote many cicalate, stravizi, satire and ditirambi. Some
of his famous contributions for the Crusca are the Cicalata in lode della padella e della frittura (1656),
the Ditirambo d’uno che per febbre deliri (1659), and the Contraccicalata alla cicalata dell Imperfetto
[pseudonym of Orazio Rucellai (1604-1673)] sopra la lingua ionadattica (1662). His good friends were
the intellectuals Alessandro Segni, Francesco Redi, Lorenzo Magalotti, Orazio Rucellai, and Antonio
Magliabechi. Panciatichi wrote the funeral orations for Philip IV of Spain (1655) and for Giovan Carlo
de Medici (1663). Panciatichi was interested in linguistics and wrote a Dizionarietto di voci proprie della
marineria, which was published posthumously in 1999. Together with Valerio Chimentelli, Francesco
Redi and Ottavio Falconieri he worked on an Etimologico Toscano, edited by Carlo Dati, but this was
never published. In 1670 and 1671 Panciatichi travelled to France, Flanders, the Netherlands and Germany. He stayed in Amsterdam for a while to search for a self-portrait of Palma il Vecchio, which was
destined for the Corridoio Vasariano. After his trip he occupied himself with the study of the Greek
Language, of numismatics, and of the origin of Italian proverbs. In the same years, however, he slid
into a depression, which was aggravated by the death of Prince Leopoldo. Finally in 1676 Panciatichi
committed suicide. See Rondinelli 2014.
890 Conrieri 2003: 376.
891 Ibid.: 378.
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Another patrician who recited dithyrambs during the stravizzi of the Crusca was
Lorenzo Panciatichi from 1657 to 1659.889 He made a dithyramb on a model
of Redi, La madreselva, in which he sang the praises of the scent of flowers.890
For the patricians, the writing of this kind of poems was a pleasant pastime, in
combination with their official functions.891
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One of the poems the patricians were influenced by was the mock-heroic
poem Secchia rapita (The Stolen Bucket) by Alessandro Tassoni, published in
1622, but which was already circulating in manuscript form in 1618. This
poem influenced, for example, Piero de’ Bardi (1570-1660) with his caricature
of knighthood Poemone: Avolio Ottone e Berlinghieri (Avinavoliottoneberlinghieri)
1643. 892 The title derives from a verse of Ariosto (XVIII 8 8) with the names of
four ‘paladini’ compressed in one word in a burlesque way.893 Piero de’ Bardi
caricaturized the genre of the heroic poem in a burlesque way. His poem was
published under the pseudonym Beridio Darpe. Michelangelo Buonarroti the
Younger made a reference to Avinavoliottoneberlinghieri in the ‘proemio’ of his
Aione at the Crusca in 1643. Aione was a burlesque joke about a legendary gentleman from Figline and Montaione and it was full of pure Florentine language
with many colloquial expressions and Tuscan vulgarisms.894 So, members of the
Crusca also used their concentration on the purity of the Tuscan language in
exaggerated ways to record these vernacular expressions for posterity.
It was not only the patricians who wrote burlesque poems with significant
attention to vernacular language; so, too, did the artist-members, especially
Lorenzo Lippi (1606-1664), who kept in very close touch with the patricians.
His famous poem Il Malmantile racquistato had a burlesque intonation and was
influenced by Secchia rapita. Lippi began to write it in 1644, but it was published
posthumously in 1676 under the pseudonym Perlone Zipoli. It contained many
Tuscan proverbs and sayings, and popular language. In 1688, Leopoldo commissioned Puccio Lamoni (Paolo Minucci) to publish a Florentine version with
footnotes to explain all the particularities of the language to non-Florentinepeople.895 The style was burlesque, mock-heroic, and comic,896 and with a mix
of fantasy and bizarre details, almost every sentence had a double meaning.897
It contained much vulgar humour, linguistic experimentations, and Florentine
idiotisms.898 The title Il Malmantile racquistato - the subject was the reconquering of the Castle Malmantile - is a reference to the Gerusalemme liberata (1580)
892 Conrieri 2003: 381. The Stolen Bucket tells about the War of the Oaken Bucket between Modena and
Bologna (1325-27).
893 Arbizzoni 1997: 750.
894 Conrieri 2003: 381; Arbizzoni 1997: 751. It was published posthumously only in 1852.
895 Cabani 2010: 199; Conrieri 2003: 381; Arbizzoni 1997: 746, 751.
896 Cabani 2010: 197.
897 Conrieri 2003: 381; Arbizzoni 1997: 746, 751. Examples of Tuscan sayings include E, perch’ei non avea
tutti i suoi mesi (he did not spend nine months in the womb and therefore his brains are not fully
developed), and Io vado a Scesi = to die.
898 D’Afflito 2002: 155.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
899 Cabani 2010: 198. The Poem of Francesco Bracciolini dell’Api (1566-1645), dedicated to Cosimo II de’
Medici, contains the love story of Alceste and Elisa. David Quint (2001: 59, 66) writes that in La croce
racquistata the Medici family is glorified in the form of the heroine Herinta, the daughter of Heraclius,
who is presented as the ancestress of the Medici dynasty, who gets in this poem an ancient imperial
genealogy.
900 D’Afflito 2002: 28.
901 Rossi 2007: 107.
902 Ibid.: 108.
903 Ibid.: 113 .
904 Conrieri 2003: 362.
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and Gerusalemme conquistata (1593) of Tasso, and to the Croce racquistata (1614)
of Francesco Bracciolini dell’Api. The poem contained twelve cantos. The fixed
topoi of Tasso are changed in a comical way; the prologue for example takes
place in the sky.899 Lippi joined several academies together with Florentine
intellectuals, discussed literature with them, and from a literary viewpoint his
poem has more quality than the poems of the other painters.900
Other painters who wrote poems were Francesco Furini, Andrea Boscoli,
Cristofano Allori, Andrea Commodi, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Baccio del
Bianco, Cosimo Lotti, and Sebastiano Mazzoni. The style was mostly neoburlesque/grotesque with many bizarre details.901 This style was well suited to
the playful caricatural and mock-heroic painting fashion in that time. Mostly
the painters did not publish their poems, but let them circulate in manuscript
form. Their poems were often parodies of Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, Burchiello,
Berni, Pulci, and Ariosto. The poems were very expressive, as if painted with
words,902 and they were also influenced by the theatre. In Francesco Furini’s
poem Sconcio sposalizio, Amor goes to Mount Olympus and back very fast,
which lets one think of the changing set designs of the architects Baccio del
Bianco and Giulio Parigi. Also the leading characters, two caramogi, seem to be
a reference to Baccio del Bianco.903
The patricians and artists used vernacular language not only in the poems
they wrote, but also in their plays. Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger especially experimented with popular jargon in his grand dramas. His play La
Tancia (1611) deals with the impossible love story of a townsman Pietro and
the peasant girl Tancia. The language differences between the city and the
countryside are very obvious. With this play, Buonarroti the Younger wanted
to promote the diversity of the Tuscan language, by showing the language of
different levels of society, which of course had a comical effect.904 His play La
Fiera, which also contained many linguistic experiments and Tuscan sayings
and proverbs, was performed very late in the evening for the first time in 1619
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in the Teatro della Sala of the Uffizi. The Medici Grand Dukes were among the
spectators. It was a mix between a theatre play and a ball.905 The play contained
some comedic aspects, but Michelangelo experimented with many genres at
the same time and the play was at the same time a pastime for courtiers, a music
spectacle, a naval battle, and a satire.906
The Pastori Antellesi
The Pastori Antellesi was a quite informal academy formed in 1599, the members
of which gathered in different villas in the countryside until 1637. The main
purpose of this academy was the study of literature and poetry. The members
of the Pastori Antellesi had pseudonyms inspired by rural literature, such as Jacopo Sannazarro’s Arcadia (1502) and stories of Boccaccio. Most of the members
of the Pastori Antellesi also participated in the Accademia Fiorentina and the
Accademia della Crusca, including Jacopo Soldani (with the pseudonym Tirsi),
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (Alfesibeo), Niccolò Arrighetti, Mario
Guiducci, Neri Alberti, Marcello Adriani, Piero de’ Bardi (Selvaggio), Jacopo
Giraldi, and Galileo Galilei.907
The Pastori Antellesi alternated among different villas in the neighbourhood of Antella, in the region of Bagno a Ripoli. While discussing literature
and poetry, they wandered in the Tuscan hills and went fishing or hunting.
One of the main functions of the academy was to get away from the hectic life
of the city and to relax in the countryside.908 Already in the early Renaissance
period, patricians and members of the Medici family had used their villas for
humanistic discussions and pastimes. Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) called his
villa in Terranuova the Academia Valdornina, reference to the name of Cicero’s
Tuscan villa. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) followed this example and gave his
villa the name Academia as well. The fifteenth-century humanists revived the
philosophic dialogues of Cicero and retreated to their villas to get away from
905 Porcelli 1984: 53, 54, 57, 59, 60. The comedy was performed in five acts instead of five daily periods
(giornate). It was a kind of summary, because the original piece contained 30.000 verses and took
very long. Buonarroti was aware of this and wrote in the original text Alla fine di ogni atto venga un
personaggio che faccia tollerar la lunghezza con nuove consolazioni o mitigazioni che siano in un certo
modo scuse tacite, e pure scoperte della lunghezza. A description of the comedy is cited in Renucci 1978:
200, see appendix.
906 Porcelli 1984: 61, 63.
907 Masera 1941: 29, 34.
908 Ibid.: 35, 36.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
Quel che al novembre io già piantai semento,Ceraso, o pero, o mel cotogno,
o pesco,
O altro, o da delizia o da provento,
Veder che sia attaccato, e verde e fresco,
E fatta a primavera bella messa,
Parer parlare e dirmi: Io cresco, io cresco.914
Buonarroti thought the city was full of hypocrites with superficial activities.915
He dedicated his satiric poems to his patrician friends Niccolò Arrighetti (in
1632), Mario Guiducci (in 1632-33), and Jacopo Giraldi (in 1634).916 In 1627,
909 Coffin 1979: 10-12. Bruni Dialogus ad Petrum Paulum Histrum. Poggio Bracciolini De Avaritia + De Nobilitate + Historia Convivalis. Matteo Palmieri: Della Vita Civile 1430. Alamanno Rinuccini: De libertate 1479.
Francesco Guicciardini’s dialogue about the government was situated in villa Del Nero, Impruneta.
910 Coffin 1979: 14.
911 Limentani 1961: 60-61.
912 Arbizzoni 1997: 758. Michelangelo’s satiric poems had approximately 350 verses, which was quite long.
913 Limentani 1961: 72.
914 Ibid.: 73: quote from Satira 1 Vv. 187-192.
915 Ibid.: 74.
916 Ibid.: 76, 78.
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political and commercial affairs in the city and to write philosophical treatises.909
In 1475, Cristoforo Landino published his famous Disputationes Camaldulenses,
an imaginary story about a group of Florentine patricians (including Lorenzo
and Giuliano de’ Medici, Leon Battista Alberti, and Alamanno Rinuccini) who
climb the mountain to the Camaldoli convent to discuss, far from the tumult
of the city, the comparison between the active and the contemplative life.910
Some patricians’ poems emphasize the contrast between country life and
life at court in the city. Soldani compares the pleasures of nature and the hills
of the Arno valley with the delights that come from luxurious objects (like
dresses, damask, brocade) in the city in his poem Che l’uomo non sa dove risieda
la sua felicità, e che indirizza i suoi voti ad oggetti che gli sarebbero fonte d’infelicità
(as it was titled by Limentani).911 The satirical poems of Buonarroti, the capitoli
of 1637, describe the contrast between the idyllic pastoral world and the hectic
world in the city. They are more burlesque in intonation and less aggressive
than Soldani’s poems.912 Influenced by Horace, he praises villa life in the countryside, and he accurately observes the beauties of nature, the inhabitants of
the countryside, and their use of language.913 He loved the cyclical changes of
nature, the pleasure of wandering in the hills, and seeing the crops grow:
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220
Chapter Four
the painter Andrea Commodi wrote a satirical political poem about the Spanish
invasion of Italy.917 Battles were so ubiquitous in that period that the poems of
Commodi were also meant as a flight into the pastoral world. In his frottole he
describes the life at the countryside, just like Buonarroti and Soldani. But this
quiet and peaceful life is disturbed by the noises of the war.918 Buonarroti and
Commodi also exchanged frottole in 1627, which are all written in a vulgar,
Florentine idiom and performed with music.919 Another person who praised
the life at the countryside in his poems was Orazio Rucellai, a member of the
Accademia degli Apatisti:
Tolto al grave tenor de’ verdi affanni
Men vivo in solitatia erma foresta
Schivo l’orgoglio pur d’atra tempesta
Ch’agitò il viver mio ne’ più verd’anni.
Non mai novella di ruine, e danni
Qui me giunge a inquietar torbida, e mesta
Ne trovo in vile albergo, o in umil vesta
Tela di frodi, o fabbrica d’inganni.
Più dolce è il conversar tra gl’olmi, e i faggi,
Che per entro a cittade alta, e superba
Soffrir ogn’or degl’emuli gl’oltraggi 920
Sometimes the Pastori Antellesi made hiking trips of several days and passed
different villas. One of these trips is described by Piero de’ Bardi, who told
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger about it in a letter. He describes a trip in
1633 from San Quirico a Ruballa to Antella in which he continuously compares
the landscape to landscapes from classical mythology. Furthermore he writes
how during their trip the members of the Pastori Antellesi were hosted by local
917 Baffoni 1955: 12. Biblioteca Nazionale Firenze. This was the period of the Thirty Years’ War. In 1627 a war
about the Duchy of Mantua began. This ended with the the treaty of Cherasco (1631) which decided
that the duchy came in the possession of the family Gonzaga-Nevers. This was the beginning of the
French hegemony of Italy. The domination of Spain stopped at this moment. The wars over Mantua
(1627-30) coincided with the invasion of the army of the Habsburg Emperor and with the Plague. (Baffoni 1955).
918 Ibid.: 13
919 Bruno 2007: 37. Frottole are popular poems with varied metre, with bizarre thoughts and riddles
(Garzanti).
920 D’Afflito 2002: 154 BNCF Palatino 263 Poesie di diversi del XVII secolo c. 25 Lascia la corte per la villa (S
Cav Orazio Rucellai).
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
221
aristocrats and priests and how they enjoyed having dinner, drinking wine,
and admiring the antiquities in the villa of the son of Cosimo dell’Antella.921 It
seems that the patricians enjoyed these informal academies a lot and that they
afforded them an important venue for socializing.
4.4.2 Theatrical academies
921 Casprini 1994: 76. The itinerary they followed: San Quirico a Ruballa – L’Apparita – Il Borro di San Giorgio – Montisoni – La Fonte dell’Acqua Calda verso San Donato – Montisoni – Lonchio – Antella
922 Mamone 2003b: 216.
923 Ibid.: 214.
924 Ibid.: 215.
925 Ibid.
926 Ibid.
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The Incostanti, the Improvvisi/Percossi, the Affinati, and the Sorgenti
Another category of academies were those that performed theatre plays. The
academies were used as a form of sociability and there were many links between
patricians and performers within them.922 The theatre academies had many
functions, among them to perform plays at ceremonial feasts of the Medici, to
experiment with new theatrical genres (such as elaborations of Spanish plays),
and to organize commemorative ceremonies on the death of important persons.
Small theatre academies flourished under the regime of Cosimo II. Because
of his bad health, he did not organise many large-scale events and he reduced
the political control over theatre and contributed fewer financial resources
for scenery, costumes, and actors. Fewer plays were censored and the Medici
(for example, Don Giovanni) sponsored academies and confraternities in a
constructive and not restrictive way.923 There was considerable freedom for
experimentation, and the patricians took advantage of this situation. As they
were financially autonomous and well educated in thinking about theatre
plays, they started to organise performances in which young patricians acted
alongside professional artists.924 The performances were held either in Medici
palaces or in their own palaces and were organised sometimes in commission
of the Grand Duke, but on other occasions completely autonomous of him, or
only in honour of him.925 For both the Medici and the patricians the involvement in theatre meant an increase in their social prestige.926
Between 1610 and 1640, the activities of the small theatre academies filled
in the gaps between dynastic events of the Medici. Court theatre in those years
was not terribly innovative, but the experiments in the confraternities and small
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academies certainly were. In 1618, the Accademia degli Incostanti was officially
founded by the painter Filippo Furini and the painter and architect Cosimo
Lotti, after several years of performing as an unofficial theatre company. The
Incostanti, patronized from 1618 by Don Giovanni de’ Medici, often performed
improvised plays in the Casino di San Marco.927 They also performed improvised
plays in very informal settings like the sleeping room of the Grand Duke, who
commissioned them to entertain the Grand Duchess and her children while he
was observing them from his bed, as is clear from the diary of Cesare Tinghi:928
Et adì 2 detto [marzo 1620] venute le 22 ore, volendo S.A. dare un poco di
piacere alla Serenissima Arciducessa et a signori fillioli et sorelle, fece recitare
una commedia all’improvviso dalli Accademici delli Incostanti a uso di Zanni
et Pantaloni, in camera sua, et S.A. stette a letto.
Many painters were members of the Accademia degli Incostanti such as Cristofano Allori, Filippo Furini (the father of Francesco), Cosimo Lotti, Baccio del
Bianco, and Lorenzo Lippi.929 In 1609 Cristofano Allori performed Orpheus
in the palace of the Montalvi and in 1611 he performed in Buonarroti the
Younger’s La Tancia in the palace of Don Antonio de’ Medici.930
One of the other theatrical academies was the Accademia degli Improvvisi/
Improvisti (1644-45), later the Percossi. As the name suggests, the Accademia
degli Improvvisi (founded in 1644) performed improvised theatre plays. When
the Improvvisi changed their name in the Percossi after 1645, they also discussed the links between literature and art.931 The academy was patronized by
Giovan Carlo de’ Medici from 1645.932 They met in the house of the painter Salvator Rosa (Canto de’ Cini, near Croce al Trebbio) and after that in the Casino
Mediceo. Members of the Percossi were Francesco Rovai, Carlo Dati, Lorenzo
Lippi, Paolo Minucci, Luigi Ridolfi, Antonio Malatesti, Andrea Cavalcanti,
Evangelista Torricelli, Vincenzo Viviani, and Giovambatista Ricciardi.933 Most
of these members were also members of the Crusca and the Apatisti.934
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
Testaverde 2002: 125.
Landolfi 1991: 71.
Testaverde 2002: 125; Mamone 1996: 222, 228.
Mamone 1996: 224-25.
Langdon 1974: 190.
Mamone 2001a: 124.
Michelassi 2010: 137, 139; Fumagalli 2007a: 64.
Fumagalli 2007a: 64.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
935 Michelassi 2010: 138. The first performance was on 11 January 1644, ASF Miscellanea medicea, 302, ins.
3 c.35v), see appendix. Another performance took place on 23 January 1645, ASF MM 304, ins III fasc. 4
c. 165r-v, see appendix.
936 Michelassi 2010: 140.
937 Fumagalli 2007a: 62, 63.
938 Weaver/Weaver 1978: 87-143.
939 Vuelta García 2001: 361.
940 Michelassi 2005: 450; Mamone 2001a: 130.
941 Vuelta García 2005: 485; Vuelta García 2001: 358, 364. One famous member was for example Mattias
Maria Bartolommei (1640-1695) who performed the role of nobile gentildonna in Il male in peggio. His
anagram within the academy was Passa Bel Masotto Ammirati.
942 Vuelta García 2001: 360.
943 Michelassi/Vuelta García 2004: 70.
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Like Michelangelo’s Fiera, the plays of the Improvvisi were performed sometimes very late in the evening.935 The improvised performances were organised
as follows: the plays were described scene by scene based on a certain theme,
but the dialogues had to be improvised. Usually, the members of the academy
were divided in two groups, one to play the serious parts and the other the ridiculous parts.936 The members of the Percossi occupied themselves with minor
literary genres, writing odes, sonnets, satires, and songs, which were seldom
published but circulated as manuscripts in the academies, to be read during
their meetings.937
Another academy that focused on improvisational plays was the Accademia
degli Affinati/Affannati (1650-ca. 1742). In this academy, new influences, improvisations, and elaborations of Spanish plays were very important. In 1658,
they performed Di male in peggio of Pietro Susini with Carnival.938 This was an
Italian elaboration of a Spanish comedy by Calderón de la Barca (Peor está que
estaba ).939 Leopoldo de’ Medici patronized this academy, which performed from
1650 in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi and later in the Casino di San Marco.940 It
was an academy of noble courtiers who performed for an aristocratic public.941
In the seventeenth century, there were many cultural exchanges between
Florence and Spain. In Florence a group of authors called the spagnoleggianti
performed Spanish plays.942 The aristocratic members of the Accademia degli
Immobili performed in the Teatro la Pergola court theatre, while the Accademia
dei Sorgenti and Degli Affinati presented new work in the Teatro Cocomero.
They experienced with new genres (often mixed genres and the introduction
of persons from the lower ranks of society) and (language) registers. Pieces by
well-known Spanish dramatists like Lope de Vega were performed like L’amico
per forza - an elaboration of El amigo por fuerza.943
223
224
Chapter Four
The last important academy we will discuss that performed improvised theatre
was the Accademia dei Sorgenti (1654 to at least 1679), which was patronised
by Giovan Carlo de’ Medici. The members were not only aristocrats.944 The
Sorgenti entered the Cocomero-theatre when the Immobili left it to perform
in the Pergola-theatre.945 The academy was founded by artisans and originated
probably in the confraternity Compagnia di San Filippo Nero.946 Members
included the poet and dramatist Pietro Susini, Mario Calamari, the painter
Felice Ficherelli, the architect Pietro Tacca, the musician Antonio Rivani, and
the composer Jacopo Melani.947 Whenever Giovan Carlo had to go to Rome,
Filippo Niccolini became vice-patron of the academy.948 In 1654 Niccolini took
a role in a play as a singer in the full dress rehearsal of L’Hipermestra together
with Vincenzo Bardi. When the real play was performed Niccolini was ‘soprintendente delle musiche’, together with Filippo Franceschi, Giovan Battista del
Monte, and Piero Strozzi.949 Every time there was a performance they divided
the tasks, like dancing, painting, making the scenes, acting, singing, and making music. In 1661, the Sorgenti performed L’Erismena, which was dedicated to
Marquis Pietro Corsini.950 This piece was performed four times a month to an
audience of 250 people.951 The first public performance - Il Convitato di pietra
- was for Russian ambassadors who passed Florence in 1657. It seems that this
piece was performed by a professional theatre-company whereas the Sorgenti
only provided the music, intermedi, scenes, and ballet. The play was based on
Tirso da Molina’s El Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de piedra.952 One month later
they performed the opera La caduta del principe saggio in the presence of the
whole court.953
Theatrical performances at the youth confraternity Arcangelo Raffaello
Like at the academies, one of the functions of the youth confraternity Arcangelo Raffaello was to give young boys practise in rhetoric, which was very useful
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
Mazzoni 2000: 891.
Ibid.: 892.
Michelassi 1999: 162.
Vuelta García 2005: 483; Michelassi 1999: 165, 171.
Mamone 2003a: xxiv.
Ibid. L’Hipermestra was performed in Florence in honour of the new born Spanish prince, the son of
King Philip IV of Spain.
Weaver/Weaver 1978: 87-143.
Michelassi 1999: 177.
Ibid.: 172.
Ibid.: 174.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
954 Mamone 2001a: 123.
955 Carter 1985a: 77.
956 Mamone 2003a: xviii. Here they came into contact with the painters Cosimo Lotti, Baccio del Bianco,
and Lorenzo Lippi; the writers Andrea Cavalcanti, Francesco Bandinelli, and Jacopo Gaddi; the dramaturgs and librettists Orazio Persiani, Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, and Pietro Susini; and the singer
Michele Grasseschi.
957 Mamone 2001a: 123.
958 Mamone 2003b: 233; Mamone 2001: 123; Castelli 2001: 45; Eisenbichler 2000: 111; Eisenbichler 1998: 25.
959 Eisenbichler 2000: 110. From an inventory of 1784 it appeared that the Arcangelo Raffaello possessed
artworks of the following painters: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Santi di Tito, Jacopo da Empoli, Jacopo
Vignali, Baccio del Bianco, Lorenzo Lippi, and Orazio Fidani.
960 Eisenbichler 2000: 105-10.
961 Ibid.: 110.
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for their future careers.954 Another function of the Arcangelo was to organise
memorial services on the death of important people. In 1603, the confraternity
commemorated the patrician Jacopo Corsi and an oration was given by Neri
Acciaiuoli.955
The members of the confraternity included patricians, artists, and also
Medici princes: Giovan Carlo, and after him also his brothers Mattias, Francesco
and Leopoldo.956 At the Arcangelo the Medici princes came into contact with
many painters like Cosimo Lotti, Baccio del Bianco, and Lorenzo Lippi.957 Other
celebrated members included the musicians Jacopo Peri, Marco da Gagliano,
and Giulio Caccini; the painters Jacopo Vignali, Jacopo da Empoli, Piero Dandini, Lorenzo Lippi, Cosimo del Bianco and his son Baccio, Giovanni da San
Giovanni, Sigismondo Coccapani, Anastagio Fontebuoni, and Matteo Rosselli;
the writers Andrea Cavalcanti and Francesco Bandinelli; the dramatists Orazio
Persiani, Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, Pietro Susini, and the singer Michele
Grasseschi; and the patricians Jacopo Soldani, Neri Acciaiuoli, Ferdinando and
Piero de’ Bardi, Alessandro del Nero, Piero Strozzi, and Jacopo Gaddi.958 Some of
these members also joined the San Benedetto Bianco confraternity. So, just as
some people were simultaneously members of more than one academy, patricians and artists joined different confraternities at the same time. Thanks to
all the artist members, the Arcangelo Raffaello possessed many art works, for
which reason it was mentioned in travel diaries in the seventeenth century.959
For the decoration of their ceiling and the façade of their oratory they commissioned Michelangelo Cinganelli, who also painted the literary scenes in the
Careggi-villa of Carlo de’ Medici.960
In 1621 the Arcangelo Raffaello commemorated Grand Duke Cosimo II de’
Medici, who had been a member of the confraternity from his childhood.961
For this occasion, several painters made temporary sculptures and paintings.
225
226
Chapter Four
Almost all the members had specific tasks. The patrician Simon Carlo Rondinelli made the iconographic programme for the ephemeral art. Two artists,
Giovanni Pieroni and Giovanni Coccapani, made the sceneries. The patrician
Jacopo Soldani made the inscriptions. The painter Cosimo del Bianco painted
the ceiling of the temporary pavilion in the reception hall. Several painters like
Ottavio Vannini, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Matteo Rosselli, Sigismondo Coccapani, and Anastagio Fontebuoni made large paintings portraying virtues of
Cosimo II.962 Fontebuoni and Giovanni da San Giovanni made large allegorical
sculptures of Tuscany and the Order of Saint Stephen.963
For more than ten years, the dramatist Jacopo Cicognini was a member
(1622-33) and one of the prime movers of the confraternity,964 which produced
many of his plays like Il gran natale di Christo Salvator nostro, dedicated to Prince
Ladislao of Poland and Sweden, in 1622. In that same year, the confraternity
performed his play Benedizione di Giacob in the presence of the whole Grand
Ducal court, and velvet chairs were brought in for this occasion.965 In 1623,
Cicognini’s play Il Gran Misterio della Redentione humana was performed with
music by Gagliano and Peri, with sceneries by Cosimo del Bianco. In 1624, his
Rappresentazione del Angiolo Raffaello, e di Tobia was performed with music by
Gagliano.966 During their performances, the sets were simply built over religious
objects or otherwise the religious furniture was draped in cloths, decorated with
saints and symbols of the confraternity. For the performance of 1639 of Aglae,
il martirio di S Bonifatio, written by Girolamo Bartolomei, the sets were made by
the sculptor Felice Gamberei, a cooperator of Giulio Parigi. Prince Don Lorenzo
de’ Medici helped pay for the sets.967 There was a hell with Pluto and other
monsters and there were stairs with angels. Sometimes they performed at villas.
962 Ottavio Vannini made a large painting, which represented a personification of Religion, accompanied
by Diligence and Humility. Other painters painted more virtues: Giovanni da San Giovanni made The
Perfect Virtue, Matteo Rosselli made Piety, Sigismondo Coccapani made Magnanimity and Generosity,
Anastagio Fontebuoni made The Good advice and Justice who was sitting on a rainbow, Felice Palma
made Prudence, Orazio Mochi made Force, Agostino Ubaldini made Moderation and Francesco di Piero
Susini made another Justice. After the ceremony all the allegorical canvases, which were too large
to put in storage, were distributed among the nine members who had paid for the ceremony. They
have not survived until the present day. A description of the subject matters can be found in ASF, CRS,
162.22/23, ff. 79v-83v. See Eisenbichler 2000: 116 n. 48.
963 Eisenbichler 2000: 111.
964 Mazzoni 2000: 889.
965 Sebregondi 2000: 340.
966 Weaver/Weaver 1978: 87-143.
967 Sebregondi 2000: 339.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
227
The play L’amor fraterno of Cicognini was performed in the villa Buonaccorsi in
Castel di Poggio.968
In the sixteenth century, the members of the Arcangelo had to be boys
between the ages of seven and twenty-five, but in the period of Jacopo Cicognini there was no age limit anymore. This was very advantageous for the
performances, because the older patricians had more money to finance the
plays and the older artists were generally more talented.969 In 1624, La Celeste
Guida of Cicognini was performed with music by Gagliano and sceneries by
the patricians Cosimo Portinari, Ferdinando de’ Bardi, and Lionardo Tempi.970
Two older patricians, Piero de’ Bardi and Alessandro del Nero, patronized (and
probably financed) the performance. Also in 1628, when Il Trionfo di Davide
was performed, Piero de’ Bardi patronized it, and the actors included Baccio
del Bianco, Lorenzo Lippi and the young Alessandro Galli with his father Carlo
Galli.971
From the first part of this chapter we can conclude that the cultural worlds of
the Medici princes and the patricians were intertwined. Patricians served as tutors: as in the case of Filippo Niccolini for Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, and Jacopo
Soldani for Leopoldo. In this capacity, they gave cultural advice to the princes
and got to know many artists. Mostly they stayed in contact for a long time
with these artists, patronizing them themselves as well, which led to many cultural innovations. This is illustrated especially by the contact between Filippo
Niccolini and musicians in Rome, among them the famous composer Marco
Marazzoli, who had also worked in Venice, Ferrara and Paris. From Rome, Niccolini received much new secular music that was also performed in Roman
salons. Niccolini introduced this new baroque music in Florence in the theatre
academies and during salons in his own private palace.
The patricians were well grounded in cultural opinions and could judge
paintings, buildings, books, and musical compositions and thus could function
as supervisors for the building and decoration of Medici villas and theatres
(Filippo Niccolini for villa Mezzomonte and the Teatro la Pergola of Giovan
Carlo, and Lorenzo Guicciardini together with Francesco Rinuccini for the Villa
968
969
970
971
Ibid.: 347.
Castelli 2001: 40.
Ibid.: 44.
Ibid.: 45
chapter 4
Conclusion
228
Chapter Four
Lapeggi of Leopoldo), as vice-patrons of cultural academies (Filippo Niccolini
for the Sorgenti), and as librarians (Francesco Rondinelli, Alessandro Segni
and Lorenzo Panciatichi for Leopoldo de’ Medici). Some patricians served as
cultural agents for Leopoldo (Ferdinando Bardi and Vincenzio Capponi), in this
way also forming his cultural taste.
From the second half of this chapter it is clear that the cultural academies
were important meeting places where patricians and artists shared their knowledge and skills to execute cultural experiments in theatre, literature, language,
poetry, and painting. The patricians and artists could hone their rhetorical and
improvisational skills, which could be very useful in their future careers. This
counted especially for the patricians, who often had careers in the government
or in diplomacy later in their lives; but artists also needed good rhetorical skills
to increase their social mobility and to define their places in large patronage
networks, which included patrons from different cities and levels of society.
Within the academies, the patricians could meet foreign scholars (especially
at the Apatisti) and get to know other languages and cultures. At the same time,
they made a significant contribution to record the Tuscan vernacular language
for posterity. The academies were also an important pastime for the patricians.
They took large pleasure in their word games and linguistic experiments and
in their shared burlesque world with the artists, where there was large space for
caricatures and comical pseudonyms.
Together with the patricians the Medici princes shared the world of the
cultural academies and the princes actively tried to record the activities of these
academies to posterity (Don Giovanni with his Ragionamenti of the Alterati
and Leopoldo with his entries for the Vocabolario of the Crusca). The Medici
princes invested a large amount of their time in cultural academies, patronage
and cultural performances and therefore were much more closely related to
artists and patricians involved in these activities than the Grand Dukes. This
made them also more accessible than the Grand Dukes and therefore the ideal
go-betweens for social, political and cultural requests of artists and patricians.
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
229
Figures – Chapter Four
Figure 2: The first image of Teatro della Pergola (1657)
chapter 4
Figure 1: Don Giovanni de’ Medici (1567-1621)
Reproduced on http://www.edwardgolberg.net
230
Chapter Four
Figure 3: Teatro della Pergola, nowadays
Figure 4: Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674).
Figure 5: Marco Marazzoli (1602-1662)
Medici princes, patricians, and cultural academies
231
chapter 4
Figure 6: Letter from Giuseppe Vannucci to Filippo Niccolini, 26 October 1658 (ANCFi, fondo antico 246,
inserto 5).
232
Chapter Four
Figure 7: Anton Domenico Gabbiani, portrait of the musicians Vincenzo Olivicciani, Antonio Rivani and
Giulio Cavaletti, 1687, Galleria dell’Accademia: Museo degli strumenti musicali, Florence.
Figure 8: Queen Christina of Sweden.
Figure 9: Justus Sustermans, Leopoldo de’ Medici,
before 1667, London, Christie’s sale.